Life is a masquerade
by Fairyteyla
Summary: What happened between 1871, after the burning of the opera and 1919 when Raoul was meditating beside Christine's grave? Has she seen the Phantom again? Only based on ALW. Not another version of LND. BETA HIGHLY REQUIERED TO TRANSLATE THIS STORY FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH (Une vie de mascarade's translation). PLEASE CONTACT ME...
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello everybody!**_

_**I'm french and I'm a great fan of Phantom of Opera. I have already written french fics and I wanted to translate them in english. So I would like to thank my beta reader IamAmeliaJessicaPond who helped me a lot for the translation.**_

_**The story follows the events of ''Phantom of the Opera''. It's only based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical and movie. It's not like ''Love Never Dies'' . I have imagined what happened between 1871, when the opera was burning and 1919 when Raoul was on Christine's grave...**_

_**I hope you'll like it. Don't hesitate to review. I will be very pleased to read your comments...**_

**Chapter 1: The start of a new life**

Christine was in the gondola, which led her towards her freedom. Despite being snuggled up to Raoul, she couldn't turn her eyes away from the man who had meant everything to her for these ten last years. Since her father was dead in fact. Her Angel of Music...

Why had he expected too much from her?

Why had he ordered her to make a choice?

If she stayed on her own accord, it would be a life with him knowing that Raoul was alive. Or Raoul would die... He had been so selfish, since Raoul had reappeared in her life three months earlier. It was this selfishness, united with a dark and murderous madness, which had pushed her into taking refuge in Raoul's arms. Her first love, her childhood love. With him, like always and now in this gondola, she felt safe. Nothing could happen to her. With her Angel, it was different. He was the father that she had not had the chance to know well. He had been her confidant of darkness, her mentor. He had led her towards the outcomes of her most secret dreams: becoming a great opera singer. But the price to pay had become too heavy. The Phantom had a love for her too overwhelming, too inflexible. That fascinated her and, above all frightened her.

When he had caught Raoul around the neck with his Punjab lasso and had presented her with an ultimatum, she had stayed there, petrified. What kind of choice would she make? She would lose one of them forever. Then she had acted and she didn't know why she had done that. She came to her Angel of Music, who had turned into a mad devil, thirsty for murder and full of a destructive passion. It was her true wish that he would change from this man with melancholic eyes into a sweet and protective man with her. The one that she had always wanted... so she had kissed him.

At the time, she hadn't thought about the consequences of her gesture. The Phantom didn't turn into a harmless Angel, as she would have hoped. He received the kiss with surprise. First, he had frozen but then, he had become tender and had returned the kiss, with a new passion. When Christine kissed him, at first she had only thought of the monster she was touching, her hands on his wrinkled face. But on contact with it, she had a sudden wave of loathing. He had begun to give into her touch, and the shiver had suddenly turned into something more powerful and different. The disgust had disappeared. Instead of disgust, she shivered with desire. A heat flooded her body.

It wasn't the first time she discovered this feeling. When he had brought her into his Kingdom of Music, the night of her triumph in ''Hannibal''. He had sung for her the ''Music of the Night''. His voice had seduced her, he had held her tightly to him during his wonderful and hypnotising song. There, unknown feelings had taken hold on her. But tonight, these feelings had been increased tenfold. She had no longer remained self-possessed. She melted into his embrace, giving into his kisses. She wouldn't have known how many seconds Raoul had been obliged to stay imprisoned and forced watch them.

At that moment, she had lost the notion of time and space. She had could no longer tell if she had acted this way, just to save Raoul. She was ashamed of what she had done and she turned her eyes away from the Phantom, who had stayed frozen upon the shore. She snuggled her head against the Viscount's torso and couldn't suppress a sob. Raoul held her tightly to him and continued to steer the gondola through the undergrounds waterways.

Raoul was worried about which pathway to follow and he chose it at random. Christine cried in silence. He thought her tears were because she was still in shock about what she had been obliged to endure this night. He felt guilty to bring this hardship on her. When she had sung with the Phantom, in his atrocious opera ''Don Juan Triumphant'', he had feared that she had lost the fight for them. He had seen her giving in to their duet. At that moment, he had regretted the decision to give to the vile man as prey. But it was the price to pay, in order to arrest the Phantom so that they could finally live their love without hindrance.

He had been relieved when Christine removed the mask.

How could this monster sing the song that he had sung to Christine on the rooftops? The song that he had sung on the day they promised themselves to each other.

He despised him for that. He hated him more now, because Christine had had no option but to kiss him in exchange for their lives and their freedoms. He would rather put these images in the deepest recesses of his memory, where they would never plague him again.

What strength and courage Christine had had to kiss that disfigured and mad murderer! Thanks to her, they had got their freedom. He didn't know why the Phantom had let them go. Perhaps he had gotten what he wanted, since the beginning: a part of Christine?

It was t Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny who had gone down into the bowels of the opera to save the woman he loved and in spite of that it was Christine who had given everything to save him.

The victory over the Phantom left him with a bitter taste. The bitterest taste was the fact that the Phantom was free. Who could say that he wouldn't appear one day? Wouldn't he continue to haunt their lives until the end? Victory was bitterer than he had thought and it would always be an everlasting and incomprehensible link that united Christine and the Phantom.

He had seen his sweet love give her engagement ring, which they had chosen together, to _him_. This ring, synonymous with their undying love. This symbol of their union, Christine had given it to this impostor, who had told her that he was the Angel of Music sent to her by her father. He had taken advantage of her innocence, her naivety and manipulated her. She was too sympathetic towards him. This man had a hold over her that he had never imagined before.

Christine looked at him, with eyes full of gloom and relief. For that moment, they were at last together. All Raoul's negative thoughts disappeared and he kissed her on her forehead.

He stopped the gondola at the coast before them. There was a flight of stairs upon the shore, which he hoped, could lead them above ground..

Raoul took Christine's hands in his own.

''Now, I want you to smile again. I'm here for you, Christine. Don't forget that. Nothing and no one can harm us. Come what may, we'll always be together.''

He wiped away her tears.

''I want you to forget everything that happened tonight. Be completely happy now.''

Forgetting this night? Christine, her lips still burning, wondered if one day it would be possible...


	2. Chapter 2: The Phantom's lair

**Chapter 2: The Phantom's lair**

Meg Giry had followed the other inhabitants of the opera and some policemen in pursuit of the one who had ruined their life, by setting on fire voluntarily their universe. Nevertheless, contrary to her friends, she had ventured towards the Phantom's lair not for revenge but because of her curiosity. Who was this creature which seemed to dedicate a passionate obsession for Christine to the point to put the opera in fire and in blood? What link had her mother Madame Giry, the choreographer of the corps de ballet, with the Phantom?

Certainly, Meg knew few things of the life and the world except her work of ballerina and the help which it brought to her mother for the smooth running of the opera, but it was far from being naive or deceived. Since her mother had taken in Christine Daaé, after the death of her father, strange things had taken place: Madame Giry often went out by what seemed to be sorts of secret passages but when Meg approached there and examined with attention: walls did not move.

Christine was a solitary child and very saddened by the death of her father but she often talked to herself in her bed, hummed unknown airs and seemed to have invisible friends.

Meg had very often tried to speak with her mother to know the reasons of her unexplained round trips as well as about strange behavior which Christine adopted.

But Mrs Giry was not a woman who confided in her daughter; so she eluded the questions of her daughter or cut court in her questioning by answering her curtly that she did not have time, that " she oversaw the days of the girls of the corps de ballet, that Christine was only traumatized by the death of her father and that if Meg Giry wanted to belong one day to this world of costumes and music, the best thing she could do would do exercises at the barre and her entrechats rather than using her brain. So, with time, Meg had learnt to keep silent, preferring to observe in secret all these mysteries, convinced that one day she would finally find an answer.

And this day had arrived, at the moment, she said herself, extricating herelf from her dreams, whereas she had come down so profoundly under the opera in flames as she thought of having arrived at the Hells. After uncountable steps, the troop arrived in front of a stony labyrinth bathed by water. Everybody stopped dead: there was no boat to cross and nobody knew how to swim. While some, frightened, already wanted to go back up and to find an exit before dying calcined, Meg ordered them to keep silent and to continue. Only woman among the prosecutors of the animal which had kidnapped Christine, she dived bravely into the water and, in her big reassurance, she noticed that it only arrived at her waist .

" See, there is no danger. Follow me and let us remain grouped in this maze. It is necessary to find Christine and not to lose still somebody. Come, she said with a firm and authoritarian voice which reminded everybody that she was the girl of Madame Giry. "

They began to follow her. Apparently her audacity payed because the men were keeped quiet and allowed themselves to be guided in these subterranean meanders. Their torches were not of use to them in this place a lot: in stones, chandeleirs was inlayed and their lights were reflected in the water in the infinity. Meg moved quickly in spite of the strength which exercised the water against her body. Shewas decided to find the refuge of the Phantom at all costs. But, in this labirynthe, how to find it? At the end of numerous minutes to walk in a water which became colder and colder and of about-turns having succeeded in numerous cul-de-sacs, Meg began to lose trust in herself and was afraid that her friends made it so much, regretting having been allowed entailed by her in this cursed place.

When suddenly, she perceived a magnificent fresco sculptured in a wall, a face, a divine representation the wide mouth of which allowed to pour trickles of water. This discovery made her take back her self-assurance and she indicated to her companions that they were on the right track. As they progressed, sculptures multiplied and the light became intensified. Meg hoped to arrive in time to save Christine. A noise of broken glass rings abruptly far off. Everybody stopped and Meg petrified. She was going to put on abold front, when the noise was listened again and continued to repeat with more and more strength.

" I believe that we arrived, she said with a voice that she wanted the least trembling possible. Let us advance carefully together without deviating some of the others. Let us not take the Phantom by surprise. Who knows what he could make to Christine? Let us remain vigilents and let us act calmly. "

The group continues its walking in a complete silence. Each concentrated and anxious at the idea of what they would discover some meters farther. When they reached a fork, the crash had stopped and on their left extended the Phantom's lair...

The men accelerated so much that they could . The policemen and her friends nearly passedMeg, without following the advice that she had given to them previously. She did not take it into account, subjugated by the peculiarity of the place. Instead of narrow corridors that they had gone through, since the beginning, they had reached a wide channel, which ended in a lake, where the shores were made in cut stones. In the entry of the lair, a heavy entrance gate was ready raised and maintained in position on each side by two stony giants, scuplted with such a delicacy as they seemed endowed with life. The shore was so illuminated by hundreds of candles and candles that the light seemed unreal, emanating from everywhere and from nowhere, at the same time.

Meg was the first one to rise on the shore. There were so many things deserving of interest as she forgot the reason of her coming in this place. Having climbed some steps, she arrived in front of a splendidly decorated organ whom the glittering pipes rose up to the ceiling. On the writing desk, scores spread out, certain unfinished, the others were filled with notes. The organ was really the point-key of this place. It overhung all the space. Meg continued her exploration. A miniature faithful representation of the opera and its stage was made wooden. Meg recognized the chandelier which, in real size, was the cause of the fire. She was stunned when she perceived on stage figurines painted and dressed for "Don Juan Triumphant". The set was the same that in the truth and the figurines represented them. She recognized Christine in one of them . Christine...

Meg was returned to the reality when one of her accomplices shouted:

" But nobody is here! "

It was true, the place was deserted. There was no track of Christine or the Phantom.

" It is necessary to turn back and to find an exit. The Phantom had to take Christine somewhere else, says Meg ".

Everybody was and began to turn back, when one of them exclaimed:

" Why to leave so fast? Look at what there is for wealth here. We cannot leave empty-handed. "

He had the idea to plunder this sanctuary, in spite of the presence of the policemen and the idea disgusted Meg.

" You want to steal velvet hangings and some golden candlesticks, while one of our friends is maybe in danger of death? She rebelled. "

The idea to seize some precious objects had crossed the mind of all the men. After all, the opera wasted away, they had nowhere to go and were penniless. It was logical to take in the monster responsible for their misfortune a part of his properties by way of compensation. The man was going to answer when he was interrupted by the shout of bewilderment of a young boy. This last one had found a mechanism against the stony wall which followed the shore and inadvertently had activated it. Instead of stones, there was a room covered with mirrors and the ceiling was so high as it was impossible to guess where it came to an end.

" I believe that it is there that the Phantom left, said the boy. "

Meg approached this circular room without visible exit.

" Yes, I believe that it is a kind of is another mechanism inside. If we activate it, we should be able to go back up to the surface. It is very possible to arrive in the Hall of the opera. It is from there that he ran away after his appearance during the New Year Ball . Once in the Hall, you can go out again, safe of the opera.''

''You do not accompany us? The boy asked her.''

''No, leave. I go to see if there is another exit somewhere else. If I find nothing, I shall take the lift."

The grasping man raised the eyes to heaven by muttering.

" - I do not plan to get back the slightest booty, believe in me, sheordered him. I am not of this tempering. But I want to make sure that the Phantom is not crossed by another exit. I am going to search in this lair.

- And if the Phantom finds you. Who will protect you?

- There is nobody here. He certainly wanted to join the outside, now the opera is encircled by the police. He doesn't have a chance. Even if I cross him, I do not believe that he would kill me. After all, he has still killed no woman. I shall be careful but Christine is my friend. The time is maybe counted to find her. I have to make sure that there are no other passages leading somewhere else. You made enough. The policemen will be more useful outside than here and your wives must have been worried to death not to see you returning. Go back up to join them. If you meet my mother, say to her that I arrive. "

The men, after a moment of hesitation, obeyed Meg. Her man's clothes, in pants and boots, as well as her self-assurance and her determination, since the beginning of their searches were right of all their protests. They rushed all into the lift, accompanied with the policemen, leaving Meg, alone, in the Phantom's lair...

The seconds passed but Meg did not feel capable of making the slightest movement. The atmosphere of this lair was mesmerizing. Everything was only refinement: the heavy velvet curtains, the Persian carpetson the ground, the sculptures arranged almost everywhere...

What monster, which animal could have a taste so pronounced for the beauty? Was the Phantom really capable of being also inhuman and cruel?

Suddenly in Meg4s mind returned Joseph Buquet's rough murder and a shiver went through to her the spinal column.

" Yes, she said himself, this man seems to be capable of everything. The good as the bad. "

The adrenalin which flowed into her veins in these thoughts forced her to begin again her exploration. In a hidden nook, a bed sculptured in the shape of swan was on a stage. Meg approached there, turned around... No indication, no Christine's track. Silk sheets were not undone. Some meters farther, a rather opaque curtain let glimpse a silhouette. Meg deeply pushed aside it and moved back brutally taken by a sudden chill. She fell over behind and fell on the back.

" Christine! She shouted in her fall "

But Christine's face did not answer her. It remained motionless. Meg got up without caring about stabbing pains in her muscles and moved on it. She discovered with bewilderment that it was in fact about Christine's wax statue. In its feet, was a bridal dress with a finely decorated lace veil. This man should really dedicate an unhealthy obsession for her friend to make a perfect replica...

Meg was dizzy. The head turned her. She did not also feel safe any more. After all, the Phantom really seemed to have sunk into the madness.

Whom was she to believe that he would make for her nothing?

She decided to leave places and to join her friends as quickly as possible. When she arrived at the place where had been the lift, she tried to activate the mechanism but the control lever refused to fall. She was incensed several times but nothing made for it. In front of her, there was only a stony wall. The panic began to become intensified. She turned back towards the other side of the cave by walking of a step fast and making, she realized that all the mirrors had been broken and it was these brightness which sent back the light to the infinity.

Was it that they had heard before their arrival? Had the Phantom broken all these mirrors before fleeing? For what reasons?

She approached of a set of mirrors and distinguished a kind of music box representing a monkey in Persian dress playing cymbals, put on a small piece of furniture. She knelt down to look at it closer and was stopped in her movement because, besisde it, was a white mask... She took it in the hands. She suspected although her owner wasn't far...

By getting up, she felt a breath of air touching her the nape of the neck. She turned around to try to find the source. It seemed finally that this lair possessed another exit.

Between two mirrors in completely broken feet, was held a curtain of red velvet lined with golden lace. The air seemed to manage to leak out through its embrasures. She began to go to open it, when she stumbled over a heavy candlestick abandoned on the ground.

She understood she was on the tracks of the Phantom. She could not any more move back, having no other alternatives, she rushed into the dark tunnel which masked the curtain.

She movedslowly, liking firmly the mask in the hands because it prevented her from she did not know which miracle, the tunnel was not lit but a greyish luminosity leaked out through stones, allowing her to move easily. At the end of about fifty meters, Meg heard a complaint, a kind of groan. After some additional steps, she glimpsed the outlines of a silhouette. A man seemed to sit apparently on the ground. The back against the stone, he rocked of front behind, such a saddened child. She understood that she was then in front of what she had dreaded a few minutes before.

However, in front of her, was not the bloodthirsty Phantom that she had imagined, but only a man, a broken man who cried...

_**Please, please, please, Review! I want to know if you like or not!**_

**Author note: Yes, if you're great fans of ALW's musical, you have noticed that the wedding dress is still in the lair, so Christine didn't wear it! Why? You will know in the next chapters!**


	3. Chapter 3: viscount and viscountess

**Chapter 3: The Viscount and the Viscountess De Chagny**

Raoul was afraid of being prisoner of flames, not knowing above them, if the fire had quickly propagated or not. He went up staircases, outstripping Christine, whom he held by the hand. After several minutes, they arrived at the end of the steps and, in front of them, a wall was risen. They were in an almost complete darkness and groped for a possible exit. Raoul felt an excavation in the stone, where a small control lever was found. He activated it. The wall in front of them revolved, letting escape from the light.

Christine and him were standind in front of the small chapel of the opera. But this one was in the grip of flames. A beam of the ceiling had been fired and had just fallen just on the ground, blocking them the only possible exit: the only stained glass of the chapel. Flames took more and more height.

Christine noticed that the beam had knocked down the portraits of the dear dead close relations of the inhabitants of the opera. These portraits on which they came to meditate and to light a wax candle to their memory. Among them, was the only portrait which she had of his father, Gustave Daaé.

She threw herself on the ground, the trembling hands, trying to find his portrait, among the broken glass. She cut herself the hand, by wanting to turn up one of the frames but the face was not the one of his father there. She had to hurry because flames got closer and threatened to destroy the only tangible memory of the one that she loved so much. Tears rose to her to eyes. She could not lose her Angel of Music and her father, the same evening: it was too much for her. Suddenly, she felt lifted by the ground. She shouted by struggling but Raoul's arms held her firmly. He said to her things with a firm but reassuring voicebut she did not listen to him.

She could not go away by leaving this portrait. It was impossible. But the embrace of Raoul was right of her and She let him to take her in his arms to cross the ardent beam.

Raoul took a run-up, Christine in the arms and he jumped by top the beam. They landed on the other side, safe. Raoul was only slightly burned in the leg but there was nothing grave. On the other hand Christine had entered a trance, eyes in the vagueness, the tears streaming on the cheeks. She had no reaction when he put her down on the ground and began, with a candlestick, to break the stained glass. She had no reaction when the crash of the glass was listened. It was another part of herself that she had lost, at this moment, in this chapel where she(it) had spent so many hours to pray.

They rushed into this makeshift exit , Raoul outstripping Christine and holding her firmly the hand so that she fellow him and went out of this comatose state. They had been fortunate because the small chapel was situated at the ground floor and the stained glass looked directly onto the street.

Raoul inspired a breath of outside air. It did good to him with regard to the furnace which reigned in the chapel. He moved back of the facade of the opera and discovered that the fire was going to annihilate the building. He knew that there would be no means to control it. Already, the air weighted itself down smoke and warmed up. His glance passed of the opera to Christine who was near him. She was always in a state of shock. Her face was pale, and wore tracks of soot which her tears dissipated. Her long black and curly hairs were dishevelled. Her,white bolero had become grey and her red and black skirt wore tracks of realized that she was barefoot, in the same dress, since the representation of "Don Juan Triumphant". The hand which he enclosed was covered with blood. He began to tear a piece of his shirt to prepare her a plaster. She let him do it as a child would be looked, without a word. Her fiancée was in poor condition and he suspected that his look did not have to be better. At this moment, a policeman went on their meeting.

" Sir, you are indeed the Viscount de Chagny, isn't it?''

''Yes, I am.''

''I have to take you to our chief. He wanted to be the first one to be informed, if we found you.''

''Ask him to find us here. Masemoiselle Daaé is unfit to be able to walk, Raoul answered him by showing the young woman, who was barefoot."

The policeman shook the head and went away. A few moments later, the chief of the police arrived.

" Viscount, I am happy to see you safe, Mademoiselle Daaé and began to worry. Employees of the opera and some of my men put themselves in your search, while we oversaw the evacuation of the opera. I hope that they shall go out of it, unhurt.''

''I hope it for them and for their family, Raoul answered him, he felt the tiredness settling down in his body and in his mind. I'm sorry but it is necessary that my fiancée and I left now. We need some rest.''

''May I ask you some questions previously on what happened in the basement, after the kidnapping of Mademoiselle Daaé?''

''Very few things really, Raoul answered him, a little bit curtly, because he did not want to make relive to Christine the events of the night. I managed to find the track of the Phantom and Mademoiselle Daaé. I took the Phantom by surprise. We fought briefly. I knocked out him and Mademoiselle Daaé and I fled. In this place, the fire began to appear. I think that this man has not enough chance to escape. The room, in which he was, was walled up by stones, which collapsed of the ceiling just after our flight. We could do nothing more for him. It's everything, Sir. Now, can we leave? Mademoiselle Daaé and myself lived tiring moments.''

''Of course, I understand you, Viscount. I am going to call up so that we bring you your horses here, without passing by the place of the opera, which is in big tumult. You do not need that this evening."

At the moment in his carriage which led them in the streets of Paris, Raoul remained pensive. The eyes remained riveted on Christine. This last one sat on the seat, facing him. The head put against the window, the glance lost in the vagueness, she seemed to observe the houses which were speeding past outside.

He thought again about his statement made for the chief of police.

Did he have been right to lie about the Phantom?

Everybody, now, considered he was dead but if he reappeared to damage them again, he knew that they could lean on nobody...

He began to regret this lie. He had been taken by surprise. When with Christine, he had joined the exit, he had had thoughts only for her and her well-being. He should have prepared his speech before. All that he could hope for, at the moment, it was that the Phantom keeped his promise: not disturb them as long as they did not reveal to the world his existence. Raoul had just respected his promises.

" Provided that this man will do the same, he said to himself. "

Going out of his dreams, he decided that it was time to bring out Christine of her torpor. He came to sit down next to her, without any reaction of her part. Tha situation was torture for him, to see her acting like that. He knew that she held it against him not to have let her get back the portrait of his father. He put his arm around her shoulders, so frail, and murmured to her slowly:

" Christine? Christine? Do you hear me? "

For a moment which appeared to him an eternity, she did not move, then slowly, she averted her gaze from the outside and her dark eyes came to settle on his. Raoul was relieved of this gesture. He wanted to smile to her but Christine's question prevented him from it:

" Why, Raoul? Why to have prevented me from getting back the portrait of my father?''

''If I had not done it, we would have been trapped by flames. I had no other choice if we wanted to go out alive.''

''This evening is the end of ten years of existence, Raoul. I have the impression to be seven years old and to have lost my father again. In the opera, it was as if he was always with me. I had a quite drawn life. Now that the opera is not any more, I have the impression to have lost a part of my soul"

Raoul did not dare to ask her, if she spoke only about his father either if she also implied the loss of the he held on. He did not want to bring up again any more on these events. The Phantom did not exist any more for this evening. He let her continue.

"If you were not there, I do not know what I shall become, she said to him, tremors in the voice. I do not have anybody than you, Raoul. Promise me that you will love me and that you will take care of me.''

''I promise you, my love, he answered her, in a soft and relieved voice. I promise you to make you forget your past. Now, look towards the future, Christine. We can again make projects. We are going to get married. I promise you a quiet and serene life. "

The carriage stopped in front of the De Chagny Mansion, inside the court. Raoul approached Christine's face and deposited her, a light kiss on her lips.

" Now, I have to present you to my parents. They have just returned of their journey, yesterday. I am sure that they will not recognize you. It has really been for a long time, since they saw you. "

Christine shook of the head and was allowed lead by Raoul up to the entrance of the Mansion. Raoul took a big inspiration and pushed the door.

Christine remembered having come several times in her youth to the De Chagny Mansion. The decoration was there luxurious and refined. His father, Gustave Daaé, was always present during the receptions, organized by the Viscount and Viscountess De Chagny. It was him who gave concertos solo either took care of the orchestra. For the quality of the musical atmosphere, the viscount and the viscountess trusted the Swedish violinist. Monsieur Daaé was recognized as an excellent musician and De Chagny had become, as the time goes by, his sponsor.

Christine remembered herself these evenings, when Raoul and her played together and had fun under tables to observe the ladies in their luxurious dresses which discussed between them. Raoul, in this time, had promised her to offer her one even more attractive when they would be adults. Christine smiled to this thought. Years had passed but the love which Raoul had for her was always the same.

When they entered the hall, Christine disovered that nothing had changed for all these years. Warned of their arrival, a domestic came to welcome them but this one was not able to refrain from giving a cry of bewilderment by discovering the clothing in which Raoul and she was. This shout put all the house without top-bottom. Raoul did not have time to reassure the handmaid that his father and his mother were run up, since the small lounge which adjoined the hall.

"Raoul, my God! What happened? Are you fine? The viscountess asked him by rushing to him, the frightened look.''

''Do not worry, Mother. I have nothing.''

''What happened to you, Raoul? Did not you have to be for the Opera Populaire? The viscount asked him.''

''And who is this girl? The viscountess asked.''

''Mother, Father, we can sit down at first and take a snatch. Then, I shall tell you all that you want to know. "

The viscountess made a domestic call up to bring them some water, some tea and a meal for her son and the girl who accompanied him.

For all these years, the viscountess had not changed. She was the same that in Christine's memories; tall and thin as her son. Only her hair of a dark fair-haired blond, identical to Raoul, had begun to turn in grey. The viscount, who was not a tall man, had taken some stoutness. His hair had grown thin and he raised a mustache of a salt-and-pepper color. Due to his face, he could seem a cheerful man but Christine remembered that he was severe, in particular when it was about Raoul's education. The mother of this last one was a soft and charming woman, unlike her husband.

Once settled in the lounge, Raoul and Christine quenched thirst. This one remained silent, intimidated by the parents of her fiancé. Since Raoul's reappearance in her life, she did not have been able to meet the viscount and the viscountess. Raoul had explained her that they had gone on a journey in England for the needs of the business, which his father led there.

In view of Raoul's a little bit nervous look, at this moment, she guessed that if their engagement had been considered secret not to undergo the anger of the Phantom, in her own request, Raoul, from his part, had also hidden it from his parents.

Raoul put a little bit abruptly his cup of tea on the table and began his narrative:

" Father, Mother, I wanted to present you this young woman in a more suitable way to the etiquette. But I think that you will recognize her, because you have already met her.''

''Yes, it seems to me your face is not unknown me, Mademoiselle, the viscountess answered. But I shall not know how to to say whom you are.''

''And indeed, I present you Christine Daaé. Father, Mother... "

Raoul's mother was ready to open the arms to greet Christine, when Raoul released:

"... Mademoiselle Daaé and I are engaged. "


	4. Chapter 4: The Fallen Angel

**Chapter 4: The Fallen Angel**

The Phantom had not heard Meg's arrival. So, this last one moved the most silently possible. He continued to rock. His face was hidden between the arms. He murmured between his sobs a name which he repeated to the infinity.

" Christine... Christine... Christine... "

He seemed in trance, blinds, ignoring the girl who got closer to him.

Meg considered him one moment, not knowing which attitude to adopt.

What was it happened to Christine? Did she have to turn back before he realizes her presence? Did she have to bring him out of his torpor? What reaction would he have against her?

All these questions crowded in her head, but her instinct, her feelings of compassion and pity got the upper hand over her spirit. This man did not look like any more the proud and haughty Don Juan, the captivating voice, fascinating the spectators of the opera a few hours before. It was not more than a wounded animal. So, she knelt down in front of him and held out the hand to touch his arm.

Hardly she had touched it that he went out abruptly of his torpor, jumping up on his legs as an agile feline. The suddenness of this movement frightened Meg, who brought down the mask which she held. She pushed her back against the opposite wall of the tunnel in the one that occupied the Phantom. This one was standing in front of her, a flash of madness crossed his eyes.

" Whom are you, poor impertinent woman? You have to make nothing here! He roared with a hoarse voice. What do you want? To deliver me to the outside world? "

Meg remained paralyzed, hypnotized by this deformed face which she could distinguish in this crepuscular brightness. The right side was shrivelled, with a reddish color. His falling lower eyelid, enlarged his look in a absurd way making him still crazier. The right side of the skull almost lacked hair, whereas his other profile wasn't comparable at left side was extravagantly perfect, of an almost ridiculous beauty, if the fury which boiled in him, at this moment, had not deformed his features.

The dumbness of the girl put the Phantom in a nameless anger. He swept down on her and, with a single hand, gripped her the throat.

" Did not you know that the curiosity is a mortal sin? He whispered to her, tears continuing to pour along his cheeks. I lost everything. Today, I am not more than a Fallen Angel but I assure you that nobody will be again the witness of my fall. You will fall at the same time as I! "

Meg's heart beat to break everything in her breast. She would have liked shouting but the Phantom's grasp closed with more and more strength around the neck. She tried of fighting against this hold but in vain. She had no longer the necessary strength. She would thus be the new victim of this monster.

She had understood too late that you do not approach a wounded and forced wild animal because it has no other instinct than attacking to death. Butterflies danced in front of her eyes. She suffocated and misses oxygen. This leaded her, little by little, towards the unconsciousness and the death...

" Erik! What are you doing? Release her at once! She made nothing to you! She is my daughter! "

This voice seemed to come of beyond the grave. Meg felt the grasp disappearing. She subsided on the hard, wet and cold ground. She was paralyzed. The air filled again her lungs and the stabbing burning in her throat, every inspiration, made her take back consciousness.

When her mind found all its lucidity, she recovered and recognized her mother, who was standing in front of the Phantom. She was at the edge of the hysteria and roared at the top of the voice.

" Why were you attacking her? She does not want to harm you. You had promised me, Erik! Everything but not Meg!''

''I am sorry, Antoinette, he answered her, in moaning again. I was caught off my guard. I thought that nobody would find me in this place. I acted without thinking of what I did. "

Meg felt her mother helped her to get up.

" Meg, my darling, are you fine? She asked her in a terrified voice. "

But she could not answer her, taken by a coughing fit. Her throat burned as the Hell. Her sigh improved little by little and she was able to distinguish her mother who supported her by the waist, the face was still frozen by the fear, which she had had by discovering her dying daughter.

When Meg was up and about again, Madame Giry embraced her in a gesture of reassurance and love, contrary to her usual character. The glance of the girl settled on this one of her executioner, at the moment, standing, catching against at the stony wall.

" Forgive me... Forgive me... Forgive me, he repeated "

Meg was still incapable to articulate the slightest word to answer him. Her mother released her embrace and approached then the man

" Erik, what happened, after Christine's kidnapping? The viscount came to save her. I sent him to search her. It is me who guided him until you. You had to leave herthe choice, she...''

''I lost her, he cut her, eyes filled with pain. I gave her an ultimatum: he or I.''

''And she chose the viscount, didn't it?''

''No, she kissed me, he said, still stunned by this act which he had not ordered. I let her leave with him. I... "

His voice got lost in a murmur.

Madame Giry put a hand on his shoulder. Meg was stunned by this mark of affection towards the Phantom, towards Erik, as her mother called him. He did not oppose to this contact and the girl understood that her mother had a strong link with him, as a kind of authority which he did not dispute.

" I knew that she would choose me only by the strength.I had organized everything. De Chagny had to die, this evening. He did not have to intervene any more between us. But when her lips settled on mine, my spirit became muddled and nothing mattered anymore, set apart her happiness. I let them leave...''

''You acted well, Antoinette Giry answered him.''

''I acted like a coward, he replied her, finally becoming aware of his behaviour.''

''No, you acted as a human being. A human being capable of love. The love has many forms, Erik. The selfish love, which you carried to her, was only taking her away from you. This evening, you showed altruism. You understood that the deep love was at first to make the happiness of the other one. By letting her choose the viscount, you preferred to let her live a happy and free life rather than a life to hate you and to consider you always like an executioner rather than a lover. "

Erik wanted to bury his face in the hands but Madame Giry anticipated it and surrounded him the cheeks of her frail fingers, ignoring the ugliness of his face.

" I am proud of you, she whispered him, in looking at him in eyes. "

The Phantom seemed ill-at-ease, in this contact. Meg, who had followed their conversation, recovered from the shock of her aggression. Many mysteries had just cleared up and she knew that so much whom her mother was there, she risked nothing more. In her feet, was the white mask which she had released. She took it and wanted to give it to her mother but it was Erik, who took back it, by thanking her.

" I do not know if you will forgive me a day but I promise you that it won't never happen again, Mademoiselle Giry. "

By wearing back his mask, he had found an self-assurance, comforting words of her mother having also walked in his mind. Meg recognized then the coolness of the man, who she had always caught a glimpse and who was in a million years from the pursued animal that she had had the misfortune to meet, some minutes earlier.

" Call me Meg, was the only answer she could say. "

This man intimidated her too much but she felt that she could not ignore the protective instinct which her own mother had against him. She kept lowered( eyes, since Erik's confidences and she was intrigued by the fact that he had kept his left fist closed with strength, all this time.

What did he thus hide?

She swallowed and the pain which radiated in her throat reminded her taming her curiosity. So she kept this question for her. The Phantom had promised to harm her no longer but was he capable of keeping a promise?

"I suppose that the opera is surrounded. You would better go out. They are going to ask too many questions above, said Erik, with a composed voice, as if the conversation was natural.''

''Yes, they wait for you or quite at least they hope for it. When Christine and the viscount went out again from the passage leading to the small chapel, everybody wanted to assail them with questions, but they wanted to answer nobody of them and left with the carriage of the viscount. "

In the names of Christine and Raoul, Erik sketched no gesture. The human half side of his face remained impassive.

"You have to take the passage leading towards the East wing of the opera.''

''And you? What will you do?''

''I am a ghost, don't forget that. The Phantom of the opera will disappear at the same time as this last one.''

''What do you mean? Madame Giry asked, worried.''

''Do not worry about me. Go with your daughter to the house. You see that this purchase was useful. Pass by the entrance about which I had spoken to you. You will live in it and will be as there at home. I doubt that Gilles André and Richard Firmin, " your employers ", help you to find you a suitable roof to sleep this night. I shall join you when my business will be settled.''

''Very well, I shall wait for you. "

Madame Giry grasped the hand of her daughter and they borrowed the road of the exit. Meg turned around but Erik had already disappeared. Apparently, he had returned to his lair. Her mother pulled her of a fast step, knowing apparently very well this maze of corridors, staircases and forks. Never she had imagined that below the opera was such a tracery of underground passages.

" Please Meg, above all, no word on what has just happened. No one must know, she ordered her"

Her daughter was able to only agree with her head whereas her mother opened a door, which leaded them outdoors.

_**Here for this chapter and don't forget: review, review, review, review! And if everyone who read my story let me a review I will be the happiest author of the world!**_


	5. Chapter 5: The end of a microcosm

**Chapter 4: The end of a microcosm**

Outside, everything was only chaos and shouts.

At the exit of the tunnel, Meg and her mother were approached by two armed policemen who seemed to wait for them.

"We are fine, Messieurs. I have just found my daughter. I suspected that I shall find her in these tunnels.''

''Did you see the Phantom? One of the men asked to Meg.''

''No, Sir, I think that if it had been the case, she would not have gone out alive from the opera, answered Mrs Giry for her daughter."

The conversation was interrupted by people, carrying water buckets, who cleared themselves a way between them at top speed.

"Where is your chief? I shall like speaking to him.''

''He oversees the operations in front of the entrance of the opera, Madame."

Madame Giry thanked them, taking Meg by the hand, as a child. They by-passed the opera to reach the front of this one. Everywhere, glass sprinkled the ground, the fire having made exploded all the fire went out of the building with an incredible strength. In spite of the cold of January and the snow which had fallen on Paris, it was an unbearable heat. The black smoke which extricated itself from the building made a suffocating and unbreathable air.

Meg had again a coughing fit. Her throat, tightened by Erik's grasp, was always irritated. Her mother did not stop and she had no other choice than following her willingly.

Arrived on the place of the opera, Meg was shocked by the show. A big crowd was standing there: the shouting, crying women, roaring, the men being indignant, nearly angry. They were the spectators still under the shock, each trying to find friends, husband, son...

Carriage also accumulated: the drivers trying to spot their official passengers in this great flood of people.

Away from there, Richard Firmin and Gilles André were standing next to the chief of the police. A crestfallen look, their clothes burned here and there or torn, these men did not cut a dashing figure and hoped that the police protect them from the thundering crowd.

Madame Giry and her daughter approached them. The policemen who mounted guard allowed them to pass .

"You found your daughter, Thank heavens, greeted them André with a sigh of relief.''

''Yes, Sir. Do you succeed in extinguishing the fire? Is everybody safe? Madame Giry worried.''

''Apparently, there is no victim Madame, answered her the chief of the police. Whether it is the employees or the spectators. Set apart, of course, the tenor Ubaldo Piangi. But according to witnesses, it seems that he was murdered by the man who caused this disaster well before set on fire the opera. For the rest, there are only wounded persons but nobody presents grave wounds. Messieurs André and Firmin were lucky. "

Firmin began to grumble by saying quite high that it really was a luck to see all his money leaving in smoke.

"Did you find the Phantom of the Opera? Asked Mrs Giry, with an innocent look.''

''No, Madam, answered her the policeman. And we think seriously that he died in the fire. He is not lucky to get out there alive. The fire almost consumed everything. Anyway, I am going to ask fire brigades and staff of the opera to stop trying to put out the fire. We can make nothing at all. It will extinguish itself. We are lucky that the building is isolated and that there is not a wind to scatter embers."

Firmin mumbled again in his mustache. The chief of the police ignored him and continued.

"Every policemen guard the entrances of the opera and every possible exits. Your friends, who had pursued this Phantom, told me to have found his den, but he was not any more there. Le Vicomte de Chagny and Mademoiselle Daaé were questioned at their release. According to them, the Phantom remained trapped in the fire. I think that it is true. The viscount saved Mademoiselle Daaé of the claws of this man and they managed to escape him. Our interview was brief but sufficient to close the subject of the fate of this murderer. He will have had what he deserves and if he comes through it, we shall be there to pick him. These two young people seemed suffered by their misadventure. I let them leave.''

''I am relieved by what you have just said to me, declared Madame Giry. Now, please, we are going to join our friends. "

Antoinette and Meg greeted him and went on the other side of the place, where all the occupants of the opera were gathered. Most were in tear. Their world of glitter and enjoyment had flown away with flames. The men who had followed Meg in underground passages welcomed her, with heat.

" Meg, here you are, said the young boy who had cared about her in the Phantom's lair. How did you go out of there? When we arrived in the hall, the woodwork were fired and the fire picked up one of the chandeliers which landed hardly on the lift. It was a near thing so that we die all shattered. So we went out at once because we could make nothing to help you. I warned your mother of what had happened and she went to your search. We were afraid of not seeing you again alive! "

Meg answered him by a smile. At this moment, Firmin and André approached the group and André spoke.

"Please, listen to me. You will understand that after the tragedy of this evening, Mister Firmin and myself let us have to part from you all. It is the end of the Opera Populaire. Once the fire will put out, it will not stay anymore than ruins and we can assume on no account a complete our money was invested here, however the only thing you can do is to return you in the other operas and the theaters of the city to find a new job there.''

''And where we are going to sleep meanwhile? Eh? Hailed one of the stagehands. Since the beginning when you are there, you strut about and everything left with the stream. We had no concerns when it was Monsieur Lefèvre the manager. You owe us a compensation! "

Other employees approved in big shout.

"Yeah said one of the girls of the corps de ballet. You indeed owe us something. The Carlotta, she, you gave her some money before she leaves with one of your carriage. Don't lie! I saw you!''

''The Carlotta was the soul of this opera, girl, answered Firmin. It was our diva and she lost her fiancé. We were indebted her of this loss. She is profoundly traumatized and wanted at once to leave back home in Italy. We just helped at the expense of the journey for her and her people. What is quite natural...''

''Yeah, but if we, everybody here, we had not been there to run your shop, even with your Carlotta, noone would have paid tickets! "

Murmurs of approval swelled in this crowd. Undoubtedly, for Firmin and André, things looked bad and they had to empty their purses because, in front of them, the men began to tighten their fists. Who knows what these boorish men could do? They were not any more one ounce of authority on them. These people were not any more their employees.

Madame Giry got back the money and distributed it to all those who had lived with her for so many years. All this happened in a rather relative peace. She advised them some inns to rest this night and asked them to meet in one of it the next day. She would go to speak to the viscount and to his family to find them a suitable place in one of the other places of shows of Paris.

Everybody thanked her and when everybody was ready to go away of the place, they noticed that Firmin and André had taken advantage of this to make off...

Madame Giry and Meg, after several good-byes, made road in the streets of Paris. Antoinette was attentive because at night, there were many dangerous back alley or rapists eager for flesh. After twenty minutes of walking without block, they arrived in a middle-class area, with numerous small mansions. Madame Giry took a small alley which could have been unnoticed for an inadvertent passer-by. Meg followed her and her mother went to a small door below a wall. It was locked but her mother had a copy to open it. This door led in a dark tunnel. They had to grope their way and almost stumbled several times over a step or in a hole. Finally, some minutes later, they arrived at a new door. This one was opened on a room.

Madame Giry, by entering it, lit oil lamps and prepared a fire in the fireplace, which was there. Apparently she knew relatively well the place. Meg closed the door by where they had just entered and noticed that it was in fact about a hidden door. The light being made in the room, she noticed that they were in a small lounge) but richly decorated. Bookcases filled with books, some paper painted by fine quality, armchairs of ancient manufacture: Meg suspected although they were in one of the mansions that she had caught a glimpse. Many questions crowded in her head and a big tiredness seized her. She remained standing, frozen in the middle of the room, lost in her thoughts, while her mother fussed around. She was woken when Madame Giry pronounced her name. This one looked at her fixedly in eyes with a compassionate sight.

" Sit down, she said to her "

Meg obeys her, as she have done it since the beginning of the evening. She sat down on a sofa and her mother did the same. Madame Giry took the hands of her daughter in her, always by looking her straight in the eyes.

" Now, I believe that I owe you explanations... "

_**Reviews? 8..(**_


	6. Chapter 6: The curtain falls

**Chapter 6: The curtain fa****lls**

Erik returned towards his haven of peace, his kingdom dedicated to his ultimate passion: the music. Christine's engagement ring was firmly hidden in his left fist.

He regretted this inconvenient behaviour which he had had against Meg Giry. If Antoinette had not come in time, he did not know if he would have managed to contain his anger and to loosen the fingers around her throat.

He had felt something changing in him, this evening, since Christine's kiss... He had, at this moment, felt living and being born as man. Before that, he had always considered himself as a monster, a ghost without soul. At this moment, he felt it in his flesh, this human soul that he had never known.

If he did not love her so much, he would have been able to blame Christine for having changed him so and to have given up him the following moment.

Formerly, he was only an animal endowed with primary feelings: the love, certainly, but possessive, passionate but also the jealousy, the anger, the taste of the murder... At the moment, man's part in him grew and he began to feel feelings that he had never felt: the regret, the compassion, the altruism... Yes, it was evident that the Phantom of the Opera was well dead this evening by Christine Daaé's kiss.

When he emerged from the secret passage which he had taken one hour previously, he did not feel any more at home. This place which had welcomed him during twenty years seemed to him, at the moment, foreign. Here, he had built himself a shell, a shelter and a role. Antoinette Giry had watched over him but he knew that today it belonged to him to look after her daughter and her. He owed to her so much. Her advice had always been wise.

" You did what was the best " she had said to him.

Nevertheless, if he had acted as he had planned, things would have differently happened. If Christine had not given him this kiss, he would have killed Raoul. He knew that she would certainly have had a grudge against him, at first. In time, she would have been obliged to accept him and she would have become his wife. He would have kidnapped her this evening and brought to the house that he had bought specially. His plan had been gone up, since he had written " Don Juan Triumphant ". There, he would have lived with her. Once the memory of Raoul erased, he would have continued his singing lessons which she appreciated so much, since she had arrived at the Opera Populaire. She would have become a great opera singer, whether it is in France or abroad. He would have taken her there where she would have wished to sing. She would have become a wonderful opera singer, dethroning all the Carlotta of the world without his help. There, she would have finally been able to be his, there, she would maybe have loved him. She would have learnt to love him. He would have continued to write operas for her , he would have written thousands for her. Christine was his muse. His talent of composer, it was only thanks to her that he owed it.

Now that she had left, that he had untied her wings, he felt as an empty shell. The music had stopped playing in his head. He went to his organ. He caressed the keyboard with the fingers. These last ones were incapable to press on the slightest key. Annoyed, he went to his writing desk where he wrote his scores. He took his quill pen and put it on the paper. He was incapable to write the slightest measure, not even the slightest note. The fingers trembled, suddenly, so hardly as he released his pen. He sat down and opened his left hand. The ring set by diamonds in the bluish reflections was always there. He had tightened it so hardly that his palm was encrusted with the outline of the jewel.

Christine had gone and his passion for the music there also. His muse had left him.

What's the use to continue to try to create whatever it is?

The simple fact of wanting to play or to compose reminded her, the only one who obsessed him. He had resigned himself. Without music now, he had to reconstruct himself and that he lived another life. He felt he could do that. It was not the first time that it happened to him but he knew that, this time, would be the most difficult of all.

In this state of mind, hedecided to take nothing with him in his new house. He took one of the lit candlesticks, collected his scores, his drawings, his portraits of Christine and the opera. He put all that he had loved on the model of the stage and set fire to it, as he had really done above a few hours before.

He knew that, at the moment, nobody would get in this lair to steal his properties but he wanted to finish with his past life. He burned velvet curtains, sheets of his bed. He approached his music box. By activating it, he had always found a refuge in this small monkey who played cymbals reassured him and calmed him. The flame of the candlestick approached dangerously the figurine. He stopped his movement a few centimeters away from it. No, he did not have the courage to burn this object. He represented all his life: the bad as his childhood at the gypsies but also the good as his rescue by Antoinette Giry and his life in the opera. He decided to leave it there. He did not want to take it with him. He wanted to hear no melody anymore, till the end of his life.

He made his way to Christine's statue. It either, he could not burn it. This temple of the obsession, he had spend hours every day to contemplate it . He got back on the ground the lace veil which she had removed, he took the bridal dress which she had to put before Raoul's intervention. He tightened the dress in his arms. He smelt the fragrance of this delicate work: the smell of lily of the valley reminded him that of Christine. He had spent hours to find a formula of perfume, which reminded her. So that she always seemed near him even far from his sight. He put down the dress in a bag with the veil. He put his own clothes inside it to take them in his new home.

Before leaving, he put down the wax statue in the water which lined the shore. The time would vanish it as the pain in his breast, the one of his broken heart.

On the other hand, he took in his luggage a silver chain, slid the ring there and attached it around the neck. The jewel settled directly on his heart. If he could forget the music, he did not feel still ready to forget completely Christine: her face, yes, but not the fact that she existed and that the attachment, so tiny it could be she had shown him was real. He could not give up it for the , if she had not shown him interest or compassion, why, before running away with Raoul, had she wanted to give him back this ring, this most precious object in her eyes since her engagement?

He took his bag, pulled on his gloves, his jacket, his fitted coat and his cloak. He rushed into one of these tunnels which he knew by heart, the one which emerged several streets over the opera. And that without even turning his head back to look behind.

_**What do you think of this Erik's view? Do you enjoy?**_

_**I wait for your reviews, pllllleeeeaaaaassseeee !**_

_**:.. (**_


	7. Chapter 7: Madame Giry's memories

**Chapter 7: Madame Giry's memories**

" So if you want to understand, I have to go back in time far, said Antoinette Giry to her daughter sat near her. At the time, I was 16 years old. I belonged to the ballet of the opera and I was proud of it. My mother was what I am now or at least what I was until today: the ballet mistress of the Opera Populaire. She treated me as all other girls: with rigor and severity. The opera was my house and there was only that which mattered. I was a young and innocent person. I knew few things about what happened outside.

One day, a fair came to settle down near the opera. My mother let us go to it the other ballerinas and me. I was wild with joy. The leisures were so rare as I was very excited. The night before I could not simply sleep a wink. I did not know that this day would upset my existence for ever.

We went to it quite together. The oldest stayed up the youngest because my mother had not accompanied us. She found the show of the fairground people despicable for her and her opera. And God knows that it was such a show. We hadn't enough eyes to look at everything: the jugglers, the fire-eaters, the women with beard, the exotic animals...

When we got ready to leave a gypsy opened a tent which looked like small big top. He invited everybody who wanted to discover " The Devil's Child ", a show which nobody would forget. To this announcement, my curiosity was cut to the quick and with some friends, we entered the tent. It was not question for us to lose a scrap of what this fair could bring us. A lot of people was already there. People stood around a cage as the one that we use to lock wild man brought inside this one a child, a young boy dressed only in a pants and in a bag on the head provided with two holes for the eyes. He began to strike him once, twice, three times. As soon as the child fell on the ground, he removed him the bag and lifted him by hair to show his face in front of spectators.

I was in the front row and what I saw felt me more pity than horror. The left-hand side of his face was completely normal but the right-hand side was deformed. On his body, he had numerous bruises and numerous wounds. The women roared, the men laughed. Even my friends pointed him. This little boy was an animal of circus. Suddenly, I was ashamed to have entered to see this ignoble show.

Who could let make such a thing?

When the spectators had ended, they threw to the man several coins. This last one rushed above to begin to count them. I remained clutched at the bars of the cage, incapable of averting my eyes of this child. He put back on the head the bag which hid his face. As I turned away to go out of the tent, I heard a suffocated shout. When I returned, I perceived this child whom I considered harmless strangling his executioner with a rope. I remained motionless on the spot. I was alone. There was no other witness of this scene. Even my friends had already left without that I noticed it. When I went out of my bewilderment, the gypsy was lying dead to the feet of the boy who held in the hands a doll in the shape of monkey holding cymbals. I understood his gesture in a sense.

What strength had he to strangle a man of this stature?

Nevertheless, in front of me, he seemed to have become again innocent. He continued to stare at me without a word. As I wanted to approach him, another fairground entertainer entered the tent and saw his friend on the ground. He roared ''murder !'' by understanding immediately that the child was the murderer. At the time, I did not reflect, I opened the cage and took the hand of the boy. He followed me even without knowing me. He seemed to know that I wanted him no harm and that I should make everything to save him.

I do not know any more how we managed to escape from the tent and from the fair. However we run until we were out of breath. My only idea to put him under cover was to hide him in the opera. Arrived at its walls, I opened a hidden door which led to the chapel. I knew this exit because certain girls borrowed it at night to join their lovers. In the chapel, I knew a secret passage which led to the basement of the opera. I hid him there.''

''That's why he obeys you? Meg dared to ask ''.

''Even if I always had for him a maternal love, I shall not say that he obeys me. I can only say that we respect ourselves and in a sense Erik always felt indebted to me to have extracted him from the world where he was held prisoner and not to have judged him for the crime which he committed.''

''The crime? You know very well that there was others. What to say about Joseph Buquet's murder?''

''Wait, I am going to come there. Let me take back the things where I left them. The basement of the opera was dark and I worried about Erik's fate.''

''Erik? Is it his real name?''

''I don't know. According to him, he did not know his name. In fact, first times of his acclimatization were rather difficult. He did not speak and I began to believe that he was dumb. I came to see him in the basement as soon as I could and without that my mother discovered what I hid. I brought him some water, food, pieces of tissue so that he could get dressed. I spoke to him a lot, trying to incite him to the conversation but he never answered. He just accepted my presence. It was a real wild child.

One month after his arrival, I decided to choose him a name. I proposed him some and when I pronounced the name Erik, it was at this moment when he reacted for the first time and when he spoke to me. While I left by saying to him "Goodbye", he thanked me for having chosen him a name. He said to me that it was the first time for a long time that somebody treated him as a human being.

Since a link built up itself between us. I considered him as my son even if there are only eight years of distance between us and I believe that I look like a little a mother for him because I helped him to obtain that he needed to live and bloom.

Below, Erik began to get organized. He had found what would be his den, his home. I brought him what he needed: blankets, food... In six months, he had discovered every hidden recess of the opera. This one was provided with a multitude of secret passages, with space to spy on those who lived there. Thanks to them, he did not feel any more isolated and it is what he wanted: watching without being watched.

I had begun to teach to him to read and to write. In some weeks, he already knew bases and managed to work himself. I brought him every books that I possessed and some paper and pencils. I understood at once that he was very bright and intelligent. Because of that, he began to be bored: I couldn't offer to him more.

One day, we were on stage ending the reharshal of an opera, when a ballerina began shouting that she had seen a shadow in one of the box. At this time already, we enjoied saying that the opera was haunted. It is there, I have to say, that came to me the idea of the way to meet Erik's needs. It is me who suggested to him to frighten the employees of the opera and to press the manager Monsieur Ledoux, the predecessor of Monsieur Lefèvre. Erik approved at once and for the rest, it was him who plotted everything. And it was how Phantom of the Opera's myth was born.

Monsieur Ledoux had to pay every month 10 000 francs. It was a colossal sum but I let Erik act. He was very mature for a nine-year-old child. It sometimes frightened me I have to say. If the manager did not obey him, the Phnatom would threaten the opera of numerous disasters. If Monsieur Ledoux had voluntary forgetting, the Phantom was called back his good memory by some incidents: beam which falls, appearances, candles which put out. Harmless things but which hung over the terror over everybody. Thanks to it, Erik was able to live completely comfortably. He learned himself sculpturing, paintin). He reorganized the corridors of the basement to give them some light. At this moment, he created his mask. Before he always wore his bag. I had asked him to remove it to live normally. Although he knew that I did everything not to be disgusted by the appearance, he preferred that I do not look at him in eyes or I had to turn him the back when he did not wear his mask. When he began wearing it, I knew that he felt better. He hid less and the appearance of a spectre wearing a white mask caused a big stir at the ballerinas.

When I was 18, a boy named Joseph Buquet was employed as a stagehand. He was my age old and I knew at once in his glance that I pleased him. But, for me, he had all the sins of the earth; drinker, player, philanderer... An evening when he was tipsy and when I went to see Erik, he followed me and made me advances. I refused myself to him and he began to show himself violent. Erik, who waited for me, witnessed the scene. He took Buquet by surprise by rolling up a rope around the neck. He was only ten years old but was already very strong, rather strong to fight against Buquet. Erik ordered him to leave me quiet, otherwise he would kill him. He also ordered him to never revealwhat he had seen of the Phantom this evening to whoever. Joseph, frightened by this boy in the white mask, promised but not wanting to admit defeat, he had the audacity to bring down Erik's mask on the ground. Erik was mad with rage and Buquet, terrorized, took to his heels. He nevertheless had time to hear Erik to threaten to kill himone day for the fact that he had had the boldness to make.

From this moment, Buquet left me quiet and was held coit on what he had seen this evening, for a while.

Some weeks after this incident, a new musician arrived at the opera. It was an English pianist, come live in France, attracted by the country.''

''Father, is not it?''

''Yes, it was well James Giry. As you know it, we fell in love at once. He was twice my age old but it did not disturb us. We very quickly became engaged. My mother, after some hesitations, gave us her blessing. She was sick, for some time, and her state degraded. After our marriage, she gave me the management of the opera. By means of work and of tenacity, I was one of the youngest choreographers of ballet in Paris. It did not go without jealousy on behalf of the other dancers but I laughed at it because I had everything to be happy. Three months after becoming Madame Giry, I was pregnant and my mother died.''

''Did father know for Erik? Meg questioned her, with curiousity."

Since her mother had begun her narrative, she had finally managed to understand and to have an answer to all her questioning. Her mother had never entrusted in her and she was happy of this new link which connected them. Apparently, seeing her daughter being dying had been a revelation for Antoinette. For too many years, she hid things to Meg to protect her and she blamed herself because she realized that it had only been taking them away one of the other one.

"At first, I was frightened to death at the idea of revealing him Erik's existence, admitted Madame Giry. Seen what had happened with Buquet, I was afraid that Erik does not understand the love which I had to your father. The day of my engagement, I warned Erik of my situation. He took very well the news. In fact, he already knew it because he spied on everything which happened in the opera. He had understood the sincere love that James and I we had. He had guessed that it was an honorable man and he gave me his agreement to reveal the secret of the Phantom of the Opera. Besides, your father was not an idiot. He knew that I hid him a secret. He had fast made the link between the Phantom and me. Consequently, he) was surprised by no means when I revealed him the truth.

He took Erik under his wing. This last one was studious. James taught him the bases of the music theory and the piano. He showed to be a genius. Hebegan very fast composing himself his melodies and he found finally a passion deserving of his interest in the music. While waiting for your coming, James considered a little Erik as his son, exactly as I consider him as mine. When you were born, Erik was eleven years old. He was completely autonomous and at this moment, he began to distance himself from us. Maybe he was afraid of interfering in our happiness? I decided to leave him quiet, too much occupied by you. Meanwhile, Monsieur Ledoux left his job to Monsieur Lefèvre, who understood very fast that the Phantom deserved his salary as everyone. And the life continued its course.

When you were two years old, your father died in an accident of train while he had just had a appointment in Normandy at a sponsor. To tell the truth this sponsor was Raoul's father, the Vicomte Georges de Chagny. He estimated James's talent and wanted that he played concertos in his summer villa. A part of me died at the same time as your father this day. I was annihilated. To face my sorrow, I took refuge with the work, abandoning you too much.

I did not see any more Erik. I believe that he was saddened as much as me by James's loss. He began to become a man and to limit his sorrow, he took even more refuge with the music but also with the singing. He followed by his hiding places the vocal training of the tenors who succeeded one another, making them run away when he noticed that he should learn nothing more of them.

Four years passed, when Georges de Chagny came to the opera. He felt responsible for the loss of my husband and since his death, he had always worried that you and I miss nothing. The vicomtesse invited me to come to take the tea with her one afternoon. It was there that I met Gustave Daaé and his daughter. He was the protégé of de Chagny, he was a talented violinist. We fast made friends due to our common points. We were both widowers because he had lost his wife during Christine's delivery and we had two girls of the same age. Our friendship changed into a deeper attachment. Gustave was for the winter season in Paris and worked for the vicomte. We could see each other regularly. It was then that he asked me in marriage because it turned out that we brought ourselves mutually a lot. We thought of becoming engaged when he seriously fell ill. He had a precarious health, having already fragile lungs. At time we had a disastrous winter, he succumbed of a pneumonia.

On his deathbed, he asked me to take care of Christine as my own daughter and to welcome her in the opera. He knew that she had an early talent for the dance and especially for the singing. I promised to make everything so that her career was admirable. Gustave died in peace and I kept the promise that I had made for him.

I thus brought a seven-years-old Christine to the opera. She was upset by the death of her father. I knew that he would take time to recover from this mourning. She was a solitary and reserved child but I knew that you would become of great friends. You needed a friend the one as the other one.

When Gustave was dying, he had said to her that he would send her the Angel of Music and that he would stay up her. She really believed in it and it was thanks to this thought that she had the strength to continue.

In the evening of her arrival, she went to the chapel to pray and put down a wax candle near the portrait of her father which she kept affectedly. I followed her by far to see if she was well. She prayed by singing a hymn and I heard Erik's voice to answer her. I was surprised because it was the first time when he spoke to somebody. Erik remained hidden and Christine asked him if he was the Angel of Music who would protect her. He answered her in the affirmative. I let him act because I thought that it would do good to them, as much to him as to her.

I was right because Christine seemed to console from day to day. I heard her to converse with Erik. They discussed a lot because she confided in him. She admitted him to want to become a great opera singer when she would be adult. He gave her then singing lessons every day He consoled her when she was sad. A deep friendly relation had become established between them and I have to say to you that I was delighted.

But Christine grew and when she became a 14-year-old girl, the accidents multiplied. It was the Carlotta who did it expenses. Erik demanded from Lefèvre to double his salary. I do not know when Christine discovered that her Angel of Music and that the Phantom of the Opera were only one, or if she suspected that he was only a being of flesh and blood. What I knew, on the other hand, it was that Erik did not consider any more Christine as a friend but that he felt for her a love which turned into obsession. He did not stop composing for her and taining her vocally. I had understood that he wished to supplant the Carlotta by Christine and that he was ready to do everything for that.''

''Even killing, cut Meg.''

''Yes. I feel responsible for everything. I did not take time to occupy me of him, to explain him the social codes. I abandoned him in James's death while I would have had to show him more affection. And then deal completely changed when Raoul de Chagny is reappeared in Christine's life. Erik is taken action. He realized Christine's dream by obtaining her Elissa's role in "Hannibal". I had seen it in a favourable light and then in addition, I kept the promise made for Gustave. It was because of that I suggested to Firmin and André replacing Carlotta by Christine. I did not think that this one was in love with the vicomte. When Erik kidnapped Christine this evening to take her in basements, I was happy because he had finally exceeded his apprehension to show himself to her. I hoped that she could understand him and love him a little bit in return for what he had made for her.

Regrettably, nothing happened as expected and everything became only rivalry and jealousy between de Chagny and him. I did not know how to make him to come to his sense. He became crazy about jealousy. So that in the evening of "Il Muto", he even got rid of Buquet, who pursued him and laughed openly at him for a long time. Joseph had forgotten when Erik had meant to kill him. This evening, I understood that whoever would put obstacle between Christine and him would inevitably be murdered to him. He tried to kill de Chagny, having taken Christine to the cemetery. I ignored that he went out of the opera and knew well Paris. And so he spoke to me in a letter of this house.''

''He also has killed Ubaldo Piangi this evening, cut Meg.''

''Yes. I believe that the vicomte, by encircling the opera by the police, trapped Erik as an animal. I know that he does not bear it. He was filled by the hatred and found this only way to replace the tenor on stage and so to be with Christine.''

''Mother, I always have the impression that you try to find him excuses for the murders which he has committed, Meg got indignant.''

''How would you have acted if you had been treated all your childhood as a monster? His soul is broken, he had no respect of himself. He did not know the difference between the good and the bad. He acquired his freedom by killing. He believed to have Christine by acting the same way. Please Meg, in spite of what you bore this evening, promise me to try to know him. You will see that he is not cruel. He is just a wounded person. We are going to live here now, in his house. He wants to accommodate us. It is a way to him to compensate us for the loss of the opera. Furthermore, he is going to need us. Christine's loss and mark of affection that she carried him this evening really changed him, you know. I think that now he sees the world under another angle. Meg, promise me.''

''I promise you to try, Mother, answered Meg. "

Meg knew that she had to trust her mother. If they had to live in this house, she would try to get acquainted with Erik. Because seen the way her mother treated him, he was almost her brother. But, above all, she promised herself to remain very careful, when she would be in his presence. She was far from relying on him.

Madame Giry embraced her daughter. Suddenly, they listened to a the noise on the first floor.

"I believe that Erik arrived, said Antoinette.''

''But how did he enter? I did not hear the front door opening!''

''Meg, my child, you have to suspect that with what I taught you of Erik, he never comes in by entrances! He has an unsuspected talent to find secret passages and to pass unnoticed, said Madame Giry, a smile on the lips. "

_**I know that this update was very long to come , so please excuse me! I promise to update more quickly for the next chapter. You will know what happened to Christine and Raoul!**_

_**I wish to thank everyone who let or will let me a review!**_


	8. Chapter 8: A bad reception for an engage

_**Sorry, sorry, I'm very sorry. I know there is a lot of grammar mistakes in my chapters! You must know that only the first chapter has been beta- read. I'm waiting for the other chapters to be beta-read! As you know I'm french and I promise you I do my best to give you correct chapters. I hope I don't deceive you... Thank you very much to continue to read me, despite this problem of translation!**_

**Chapter 9: A bad reception for an engag_e_ment**

" Engaged?'' Georges de Chagny thundered, going purple in the face.'' Raoul, come immediately in my office! "

Christine and Raoul had jumped because of the anger of the vicomte. What Raoul dreaded since his secret engagement had come true. He suspected that Christine did not represent a good match, according to his father. He had dared to hope that their relation with the family Daaé, for so many years, would have get the better of his unwillingness .

Raoul got up and followed his father. He knew that they would have a quarrel. The old vicomte stopped in front of the door of the lounge.

" Eugénie, send for the cab driver so that we return Mademoiselle Daaé to the Opera Populaire. It is not any more a reasonable hour for a young girl'' The vicomte said, talking to his wife.

''Father, Christine has nowhere to sleep tonight. The opera was burnt. This is the reason of our dress. We were very nearly dead.''

''It happened during the show?'' The vicomtesse asked.

''Yes, an ill-intentioned man set fire, by taking down the big chandelier'' Raoul answered vaguely, his eyes riveted on Christine to see her reaction but this one remained impassive.

''My God! You're safe! What a great relief! "

Meanwhile, the vicomte fulminated.

"In that case, prepare a bedroom for Mademoiselle Daaé. She will sleep here this night. Raoul, follow me, we have to speak."

Raoul followed his father in his office.

"Close the door'' His father ordered.

Raoul complied. Georges de Chagny, hands in the back, paced up and down in the room full of bookcases. Only the lit fireplace supplied them a quenched light. The vicomte turned around brutally towards his son and stared at him.

"Raoul, have you taken leave of your senses, by engaging you to Mademoiselle Daaé?''

''No, Father. I truly love her and the love which I give her is mutual.''

''An interested love, certainly!''

''You are mistaken, Father. You knew well Gustave Daaé to know that he was not venal. Her daughter follows completely his example.''

''How do you know it? Her life in the opera certainly spoiled her temperament.''

''Madame Giry is a rather honest and honorable person to have given her a good education. You are not without ignoring that we had shared a childhood love. Our meeting in the adulthood was only asserting this love.''

''Is it a reason to rush in engagement, without consulting us, your mother and me? Say to me the truth, Raoul, did you make her pregnant? In which case I will give her a financial compensation, so that she keeps silent and provides for her child's needs.''

''How could you think I'm so frivolous? I am only 20 years old but I know how to act in adult.'' Raoul got indignant.

''Because you are a young person and because the women are rather clever to make you lose your head!''

''Christine is not pregnant, if that's worries you. We are fiancés to put an end to the harassment whom she was victim. Because of the behalf of a man who did not deserve her.''

''And, accidentally, this man would have burned the opera?''

''It is himself, Father. But I beg you, spare Christine the memory of this man. She enormously suffered by his fault.''

''I only understand that your engagement was only aggravating things. And to cap it all, the money of our sponsorship went up in smoke this evening. I have to summon Gilles André and Richard Firmin as soon as possible tomorrow to know if we can get back a part of our investment.''

''Knowing them, Father, I believe that they completely wasted it before the opera burns.''

''I suspected that these men were careerists and drifters when I met them before my departure for England. Lefèvre should never have given up the opera to scrap merchants, ignoramuses of the world of the arts! You would have had to warn me of the situation. Never I shall have donated for the opera by knowing it so badly held!''

''Can we stop speaking about business, Father? Is the humble Chrisitne's birth the only matter for which you have to blame her?''

''Not only. You were not without knowing that my journey in England was not without report with a possible union with one of the girls of Lord Lancaster!''

''Another way, it is still about your business...''

''Yes, but if we want to continue to live suitably, according to our station, marriage and business go together. Lord Lancaster and I agreed on stiking a deal hardly interesting for the both of us, by uniting our fleets of Southampton and Le Havre. A marriage with Miss Lancaster would have strengthened this alliance. We had almost organized everything. The last thing to do is that you meet Miss lancaster. If you unite with Mademoiselle Daaé, you will not only be the laughing stock of the high Parisian society, but furthermore you put in danger our investments across the Channel!''

''It is completely out of the question to cancel the engagement, Father'' Raoul supported.

''The marriage, Raoul, is not love: it is a deal. If you love so much Christine Daaé, she should become your mistress but keep it to yourself!''

''I don't consider the marriage the way as you do, Father. I couldn't spend my whole life with a woman whom I do not love and who does not love to me in return.''

''It is still me who have the last word, Raoul! You will not marry Mademoiselle Daaé.''

''Do you prefer to disinherit me or to see me running away with her and never having news of me?''

''News! I am sure that I shall have them because you will not bear to live in the gutter. You will come back kneeling to ask me for some money! "

The vicomte stopped in front of the outraged glance of his son. This last one was already ready to leave, a hand on the handle of the door, when this one opened on the vicomtesse.

" Sorry to interrupt your quarrel but Christine went to bed.''

''Eugénie, reason with your son. Make him understand that his engagement cannot be maintained.''

''Raoul, it is true that Miss Daaé is very charming'' his mother said to him with a soft voice'' but this marriage will bring nothing to our family.''

''As you see your mother agrees with. If your sister, Henriette, had not died in childbirth, there was two years, her husband le Comte d' Hautbourg would have allowed us to make profitable alliances. But regrettably, the son of your sister died at the same time. We could not bring nothing more to the Comte. We don't have family links anymore with him. Furthermore, this last one is in negotiations to get married advantageously to the Marquise d' Allier, widow too. He doesn't thus pay attention to our problems at the moment. Understand the problem, Raoul. Our financial situation is not in the highest. We count on Miss Lancaster's dowry to settle certain debts.''

''Why, then, making a sponsorship with the opera? Your money would have better made go somewhere else rather than be placed for absolutely nothing!''

''But to make a good impression towards the society!''

''Finally, it is more about the problem of Christine's dowry than about her origin, is not it?''

''Without lying to you, exactly, Raoul.''

''And how much her dowry must amount?''

''We would have accepted no party below 100000 francs.''

''Such a sum! But Christine does not possess it.''

''I know it. That is why your engagement is cancelled and that you will marry Miss Lancaster. I shall make Mrs Giry come tomorrow so that she takes back Christine. That's how things are, Raoul. The discussion is closed. Go to bed.''

''Be wise and reasonable, my son'' the vicomtesse asked him, by taking him the hand.

Raoul had tears in the eyes. He felt powerless in front of his parents. Their whole fate rested with his future has made Christine a lot of promises but he unstood he could keep no one. He hurried to greet his parents and ran away to take refuge in his apartments.

OooOoOoOoOo

Christine was in one of guest's rooms of the Hotel of Chagny. Domestics had taken care of her. The fire had been lit in the fireplace. Some warm water had been poured into a bathtub. She had washed herself. Her torn clothes had been thrown. They had brought her a nightdress and had looked after her wound in the hand.

When they left her, she sat in front of a dressing table and combed her hair. In the mirror, she did not recognize her features. Her face was pale and she had shadows under her eyes, just over her salient high cheekbones.

She felt empty, without any feeling concerning her current situation.

When the vicomtesse had called a domestic to take care of her, she had heard the shouts of Georges de Chagny. She suspected that the engagement was not accepted by Raoul's family.

This evening was the end of everything. She had lost her Angel of Music, her father, her opera and she felt that, at the moment, she was also losing Raoul. The one for whom and by whom she had given up the three things which she liked the most in her life. She stopped herself from let her thoughts wander so. She was tired, certainly, exhausted by the events of this day, too much tired to feel sorrow or sadness. But, paradoxically, she felt was on the verge of tears. She did not want to give way to the sorrow; she would have all the time for it the next day.

She got up to go to her bed. And what bed! It was too much big for her. She been used to her tiny bed to the boarding school of the opera. It was the first time she slept lonely. Usually, she slept with the other ballerinas. When they were asleep, the Angel murmured her comforting words and sang to her lullabies. She stuck her ear against the wall adjoining her bed and let her guide by this voice which always calmed her, when she did not manage to fall asleep.

But it had been already three months since she had heard his voice. This evening, more than ever, she needed to hear him. She stuck her ear against the bedhead. She remained sat during a long moment, arms surrounding her legs. No tenor, no melody came to relieve her this night. In the room, everything was only silence, set apart the fire crackling in the fireplace. She eventually sank into a heavy and agitated sleep, filled with nightmares.

Raoul had promised to free her from her solitude but, this night, in this room she had never felt so lonely in all her life...

_**Then? I wait for your opinions, for your reviews! Do you like this chapter?**_


	9. Chapter 9: The dowry

**Chapter 9: The dowry**

_Fire in the Opera Populaire: a pyromaniac Ghost_

_A Ghost burns the Opera Populaire_

_The end of the Opera Populaire: goodbye the Carlotta_

_The mystery of the Phantom of the Opera_

That was what newspapers in this morning of February 1st, 1871 titled.

Georges de Chagny finished reading the last article concerning this story which was embroidered on by the Parisian press. Apparently, the boarders of the opera had been questioned by the journalists and everybody had on the lips only a name: the Phantom of the Opera. Newspapers told the events of the day before with few details and the vicomte was happy that law enforcement had let nothing leak out. No paper spoke about Raoul. Someone mentioned Christine Daaé only as the stand-in of the Carlotta for " Don Juan Trimphant" but nothing bound her to the Phantom.

The mystery of this man fascinated everybody in Paris this morning: Was it really a bloodthirsty spectre as the ballerinas said? According to all the employees, nobody had found his track this night.

Had he died in the fire? Had he run away or had he joined the Hells, once his work was accomplished ?

''The press had everything to publish during weeks'' De Chagny thought. What had bothered him, it was that Richard Firmin and Gilles André had apparently fled in the early hours. They would have, accordind to their lawyer, liquidated all their business and put on sale the mansions which they had just bought. They had left for province to forget this tragic event and did not have left no address where to contact them.

''Cursed scrap merchants!'' The vicomte thought. He was convinced to have lost the money of his sponsorship. Already, he had received the letters of lawyers complaining on behalf of the spectators of the day before who had been wronged or injured. Other letters still asked for what the viscount planned to do with the Opera Populaire in ruin. He did not need to trouble himself about all this mess. Everybody had referred on him, because of the departure of Firmin and André. However, everybody forgot that it was not him the owner of the opera but indeed these two cowards. He had already handed all this in the hands of his lawyers, in the early hours.

Moreover, this morning, the vicomte de Chagny had other worries. He waited for somebody. He had summoned Madame Giry because he had to speak urgently to her. Not knowing where she had been able to find accommodation, he had made her search by his servant in every inn in Paris. The quarrel that he had had with Raoul, a few hours ago, had shaken him. Formerly, his son had always been obedient to him but there he had exceeded the arrogance, by wanting to marry beneath himself with a opera dancer, without consulting him. He hoped that Madame Giry, who was almost Chrisitne's guardian, could tell him what was all about.

In the De Chagny Mansion, the atmosphere was icy. Raoul had gone out early by horse. According to the domestics, he had not had breakfast and had left without looking of information onto the place where he went. Christine Daaé had woken up after his departure The vicomtesse took care of her, while they waiting for Raoul. The girl remained silent and spoke only when they asked her a question. He knew that she suspected something. What a waste his son had done by dangling the prospect of this marriage in front of her!

At the moment, Raoul, also, fled in front of his responsibilities and it belonged to him, his father, to settle this affair as quickly as possible.

When the clock of his office rang 11 a.m., he heard a knock at the door. Georges de Chagny ordered to enter. His servant, Pierre, was accompanied with Madame Giry.

"Thank you, Pierre, you can leave us. Good morning Madame Giry, How are you? I hope that you were not hurt in the accident of yesterday evening.''

''No, Vicomte, I thank you. My daughter and I are fine.''

''I do not know if you are informed that Firmin and André left the capital. Their nerves being certainly too fragile to face their creditors and their problems.''

''It is what I learnt this morning by the employees of the opera. We met to speak about our fate now that we lost our work and for some their house. I think that it is not certainly Monsieur André and Firmin who will help us at the moment. Your servant found us in the "The Enchanted Siren"Inn, near the opera, in big meeting on this subject and it had turned out that I had to meet you to know that would happen of us.''

''What a stroke of luck, Mrs Giry! We are going to be able to speak of all these questions. Concerning your jobs, I know that the world of art and show shows solidarity. I am directly going to send letters addressed to directors of theater and opera of Paris. I know enough influential people, thanks to their sponsorship, who will help your friends to find a job from today. The affair of this fire causes a big stir''the vicomte said by showing the pile of newspapers on his desk.'' I think that helping hands will be there for you.''

''I thank you for your care, vicomte. You deprive me a burden from my shoulders because I feel indebted towards the employees of the opera. I know them for a too long time not to help them.''

''By speaking about employee of the opera, Madame Giry, I have to speak to you about Mademoiselle Daaé'' the vicomte said abruptly.

''You maybe want to speak about arrangements for the marriage with your son?'' The choreographer asked innocently.

''I see that except my wife and I, everybody knows about this engagement!'' The vicomte got excited suddenly.

''It has been three months since they are fiancés, I think. Only the opera was in the confidence since the New Year's Ball.''

''And you did not make objection to this project!''

''I have no right on Christine, although I consider her as my daughter, and even less on your son. Furthermore, I considered, maybe wrongly, I admit it, that if Raoul had made a commitment, he had thus had your blessing. They are sincerely both in love and I am sure that this union would make their happiness.''

''It will make especially Mademoiselle Daaé's financial happiness! This girl is penniless and now without roof. Raoul offers himself as a dreamed good match.''

''If the financial aspect worries you, I have to understand that Christine's dowry raises problem?''

''You know well that our regretted Gustave Daaé was not rich. You are in a position to know, Madame Giry, because you had to marry him. Not only Mademoiselle Daaé is without dowry but I already have promised Raoul to a very advantageous match.''

''If Christine's dowry turned out to suit you, would you cancel all the same his engagement either you would think any further?''

''I would just have to disengage with the father of his future fiancé. But, frankly, Madame Giry, I doubt that Mademoiselle Daaé's dowry suits me.''

''I know that Gustave had planned a clause in his will for when Christine would get married. Allow me to inquire about the field with the solicitor of Monsieur Daaé.''

''And what do you make of his daughter? She cannot stay infinitely here!''

''I shall have it only for one hour or two. Meanwhile, you can write to the managers as you promised it to me."

The severity which emanated from Madame Giry forced to the respect for her orders. Even the viscount had to bow to this woman.

" Very well, Madame Giry, Mademoiselle Daaé will stay with my wife until you come back but be fast. "

oOoooOoOoOoO

Christine felt as a stranger in this big house. The Vicomtesse Eugénie did her best to maintain the conversation but she did not manage to concentrate on what Raoul's mother said to her. This last one had gone out for a long time now. She would have liked to see him this morning. Having from his own lips that there was a hope for their union. He was not any more with her since their arrival in the De Chagny Mansion and her uneasiness worsened. She felt uncomfortable in the purpledress which the vicomtesse had given to her, too much tightened in this corset which suffocated her the waist, nevertheless so thin, and compressed her the breast. Still a few hours and she would eventually faint. She never wore a corset tightened like the noblewomen. In the opera, they were fuller and less tightened to let her breathe to dance and sing.

Singing! What she wouldn't have given to tune her voice to the music at this moment.

She felt suddenly a pain between her ribs, dragged herself out of her thoughts. She wanted to breathe, to blow and feeling ready to weaken, she hung on more firmly to the armrests of her armchair.

At lunch time, Pierre, the Vicomte's servant, warned Eugénie that her husband had urgent letters to be sent and that he would take a meal in his office.

The vicomtesse lunched slightly in her boudoir with Christine who swallowed nothing. Eugénie was saddened by the state of the girl. She had fast realized that the attachment which she carried to her son was sincere and soft. She had not wanted to intervene in front of her husband the day before because she had no influence on him. The vicomte had asked her for her opinion only by suitability. In his point of vue, the husband decided and the woman lined up without discussion in his opinion.

She knew that Raoul's romantic temperament would become allied magnificently to the soft character and to Christine's innocence. Miss Lancaster had certainly the wealth but she was not a great beauty. She had the nobility but not the natural refinement of the dancer of opera. The years of ballet dance had allowed Christine to have a majestic look and an indisputable grace. With a little of training, the vicomtesse knew that she could go out in the high society without blushing.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, a domestic came to announce the visit of Comtesse Emilie de Noailles. This last one came in almost by running up to greet the vicomtesse.

" My dear Eugénie! What a happiness to see you again after all this time! I was eventually languishing without your company. I received your letter announcing your return in Paris but I was was too much in a hurry to see you to wait for your visit! To hell with the etiquette, I said myself, I am going to take news of my , but I see that you already have a guest... I do not bother you at least...''

''Not at all, Emilie. Allow me to present you Mademoiselle Daaé, the Swedish violinist Gustave Daaé's daughter.''

''Nice to meet you, Mademoiselle Daaé'' the comtesse said to her with a big smile and taking her hands in her.''Your face is not unknown to me. Are not you the talented opera singer who had replaced the Carlotta during " Hannibal"'s representation last October?''

''It is me, Madame'' Chrisitne answered shyly.

''My dear, I have to congratulate you on your talent. I was present this evening and I was moved to tears by your voice! It seems that, regrettably, the opera burned this night. Luckily, I did not go to the first one of "Don Juan". It seems that the fire was terrible.''

''It was, Emilie, but you know Christine Daaé was present during this drama and I am afraid that she doesn't want to bear a conversation on this incident'' the vicomtesse said to close the subject, by watching Christine becoming paler and paler, because of memories of the day before.

''I understand. But what do you do here, Mademoiselle Daaé? I ignored that you know the vicomtesse.''

''Really? I know her since her earliest childhood. Gustave Daaé was under the protection of my husband and Christine often came to accompany his father to us. Raoul saved Christine from flames yesterday and as she had nowhere to sleep we welcomed her for night'' the vicomtesse answered for Christine.

The comtesse and the vicomtesse discussed together while they drank some coffee, whereas Christine remained dumb. Emilie de Noailles was a natural chatterbox. Her husband, the Comte de Noailles, was in business abroad with his mistress. What everybody in Paris did not ignore. So he let his 35-year-old wife in the capital, his only son being in pension. It did not seem to bother this medium-sized woman with the long brown hair gone back up in bun. On the contrary, this freedom seemed to please her enormously.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon, Pierre came in, asking to Christine to follow him, the vicomte asking for her. The heart of this one was throbbing violently. The fateful moment had come. She was going to have to leave the De Chagny Mansion and Raoul at the same time. Pierre preceded her and he stopped in front of a door next to that one of the vicomte's office. When she opened it, she discovered in astonishment that it was not Georges de Chagny who waited for her but Raoul.

" Christine!'' Raoul shouted by rushing to her, a smile stretching his lips.

He embraced her and made her spin in the airs.

" My father has just given us his agreement! We are going to get married. It's wonderful, is not it?''

''Raoul, how is it possible? According to the shouts of yesterday, I thought that there was no more hope.''

''It is what I believed a few moments ago. I am sorry to have left without speaking to you this morning. I did not know what to do. It was out of the question that I give you up after all the events that we crossed. I rode my horse and I galloped without precise direction. I thought about the means that we should have used to live with dignity, if my father had disinherited me. I arrived without noticing in the Saint Germain cemetery, where your father is buried. I meditated beside his grave. I have made a promise to you by engaging us: protecting you from all the misfortunes. But our commitment is an even stronger promise. Nobody can break this link which unites us. I finally came back decided to face my father but apparently things turned in our favour, without I intervene. My father received Madame Giry this morning.''

''Madame Giry came here? Why did not she want to see me? She knew that I was there. She would have had to bring me her news and those of Meg. We left so fast yesterday that I ignored if they were hurt or not.''

''They are fine, do not worry. But according to Madame Giry, your father had received a consequent inheritance before his death. He left it under cover to constitute you a dowry deserving of you, to marry the one that you want.''

''I did not know it. How is it possible? We always lived very modestly and we had no more other family that we two. Not even in Sweden.''

''Do not care about why or about how, Christine. The main part is the outcome. I shall make of you the most happy wife."

Raoul tightened Christine in the arms and pressed his lips against her. She did not return him the kiss, too much upset by this sudden reversal of situation. Raoul ignored her attitude.

"It's important that you come to see my father. We have to discuss with him of the preparation of the wedding. But at first, it seems that your father left you a present. We made it rise for you in your room. It seems that I have no right to see it because it brings bad luck, as it is said.''

''A bridal dress?'' Christine asked, unbelieving.

''Yes, it is. According to Madame Giry, it had belonged to your mother. He had left it at his solicitor's at the same time as your inheritance. It was his surprise. In this way your family will be a little with you the day of the marriage. Go to see it. I go away to warn, Mother. Then, join us fast. I love you, Christine Daaé, future vicomtesse Chagny."

He kissed her again and went out of the room.

Christine's curiosity was excited. She took in the hands the pieces of her dress, went out of the lounge and rushed in staircases to go to her room. When she penetrated into the room, she saw the dress of a spotless white which laid on her bed. She approached it and touched the tissue covered with finely worked lace. She recognized this dress and as her doubts confirmed it. It was not her father who offered her this present. She took in the hands the veil matched with the dress. This veil that He had put her on the head the previous evening, before that Raoul came to save her.

This bridal dress, it was the perfect wax replica which had worn it in this lair.

On her night table, she shivered by recognizing the sign which He gave her when He was satisfied with her. She took in the hand the rose of a brilliant red and inhaled the intoxicating smell. She caressed the familiar black ribbon which surrounded the stalk of the flower. The rose had been put on a letter. She was amazed because it was the first time which He wrote her. It was strange, she said himself, because since she knew him, he had never sent to her letters. It was the others who received letters always full of orders and threats.

She had never seen her writing. For " Don Juan Triumphant ", it was Reyer whohad copied out the lyrics of the opera.

The envelope was sent to her. The letters of her name were drawn by an oblique and regular writing. It was sealed by a seal which she did not know. It carried initials ' E.G. '.She unsealed the envelope and took the letter which it contained. Two words were registered by the same writing: _''Be happy_ ".

_**Then do you like or not? What do you think of Raoul's reactions and his family? I always wait for your opinions, for your questions, for your comments! Thank you in advance!**_


	10. Chapter 10: A future bride

**Chapter 10: A future bride**

Christine jumped when she heard a knock at the door. There had already been several minutes she was sitting on the edge of her bed, the letter in a hand, the rose in the other one. She had not watched the time past, whereas they waited for her below. Raoul had come upstairs to look for her. She felt culprit even if she was guilty of nothing. She wasn't at home, she had no place where hiding these objects so she asked to her fiancé to wait a few moments. She went to the fireplace and threw the rose, the letter and the envelope in the hearth. A fire had been switched on by a domestic when they had brought to her the dress.

Going red in the facd, she opened the door and was in front of Raoul, a wide smile stretched on his face. He could not hide the enjoyment which he had to live one of the most beautiful days of his life. Christine briskly closed the door after her. She felt as a child who had done something very silly. She was stupid afterward to have burned the last souvenirs that He had sent to her. She should have reminded herself that Raoul, not wanting to discover the dress, would not have entered her room. She chased away these thoughts of her mind, smiled to her fiancé back, took his arm which she tightened and together, they went down to join Raoul's family.

He led her up to Georges de Chagny's office. When they entered, Christine was struck by the contrast between the cold man she had met a few hours ago and the cheerful old man who was standing in front of them.

" Then, Mademoiselle Daaé, my son announced you the important new: I grant your marriage. Your father was a far-sighted man and who loved you even more deeply that I shall have believed it.''

''I thank you for your kindness, Monsieur le Vicomte.''

''It is normal. Now, we have some details to be settled. Raoul warned me that your engagement had taken place three months ago but the society not being informed, it is thus necessary to us to repeat it. Next week, we shall organize a reception to celebrate it with dignity and present you to the high society. Your marriage will take place in the end of April thus after a small wait of three months.''

''Where will I live meanwhile?'' Christine asked. ''I know that I cannot stay under the same roof than Raoul but I have nowhere to live. It would be necessary to meet Madame Giry for...''

''No, no, my littke Lotte, you will not live at Madame Giry's'' Raoul interrupt her cheerfully.

''You made a strong impression on the Comtesse de Noailles, my child'' the Vicomte said to her. Being alone till the beginning of the summer, the countess honours you with living with her. For your property, she will give you advice on rules governing the life of our society, such as the etiquette. But you will see that any further with her later.''

''What happens to Madame Giry?'' Christine insisted.

''She lives at the moment at an acquaintance with her daughter and regrettably she announced me that she could not accommodate you, not wanting to abuse the hospitality of his friend. She asks me to remember her to you and wishes you to be happy. Furthermore, I have just found her a job in a dancing school in the suburb of Paris. She will have a lot to do and wopn't have the time to take care of you, I am afraid so. You will be soon a viscountess, it is of course out of the question for you to take back your activity of ballerina. You will have no more utility of it to provide for your needs. "

The young woman understood that she could not see again her surrogate mother before a long time. It saddened her enormously. She did not answer, she didn't want to spoil the good mood of the Vicomte. He made himself clear that the decisions for the young couple were only taken by him. She didn't want to tempt providence was there, so Raoul and her had to keep it.

" If you allow us, Father, we are going to join the countess and Mother. They look forward to Christine. "

They greeted the viscount and left him. They went hand in hand to the reception room of Raoul's mother. Things had so fast changed in few minutes. The Vicomtesse embraced Christine warmly. She confided her her big relief further to the decision of her husband.

" Never I saw my son so happy. The happiness which you get him is worth all the gold of the world. For that purpose, you are already a member of the De Chagny family, my child. "

The Comtesse approached in her turn and congratulated the future couple.

" I do not regret having come visit you, my dear Eugénie. When I arrived, I suspected that Mademoiselle Daaé and you hide me something. A love marriage, it is so rare nowadays! Is not it Eugénie? "

The Vicomtesse agreed of an embarrassed spite of her social status, the Comtesse was a frank and extrovert person and her manners were not always the taste of everybody, in particular Georges de Chagny. But her cheerfulness and her intelligence subjugated everyone in Paris and nobody dared to complain her.

" My dear Mademoiselle Daaé'' Émilie de Noailles said '' I delight in welcoming you at home. We are going to be able to throw ourselves in the preparations for your marriage. Three months pass very fast, you know. I am sure that we are going to become the best friends of the world! "

Christine thanked her with all her heart.

" It pleases me. The life in Paris is often monotonous and a little of unforeseen does not hurt. We are going to come back home to recover from all these good news, do you want? On the other hand, I know that Eugénie and your fiancé have a,lot to do at the moment.''

''I have to look for my clothes in my room'' Christine said.

''A domestic is going to go down your dress'' Raoul answered her.

In herself, the young woman felt relieved to have burned the tracks of the Phantom. She did not want that Raoul knew it. He was so kind with her. It was useless to annoy him and to waste this moment which they had long-awaited.

" When shall we see us, Raoul?''

''Certainly tomorrow, little Lotte. I shall come to visit you in the de Noailles Mano, if the countess allows me, of course.''

''As Christine's chaperon, you have my agreement. But you will not have to monopolize your fiancée for such a long time. As she has no wardrobe, I already think of taking her at my milliner's tomorrow, so she will become even more beautiful.''

''You can make nothing which would make her to me more beautiful than she already is, Comtesse."

Christine blushed under the compliments. Raoul, the proprieties obliged, greeted her of a kiss on the hand and she left the de Chagny Mansion, escorted by the Comtesse.

OooOoOoOoOoO

The week preceding the reception celebrating their engagement passed in a flash for Christine. The Comtesse de Noailles considered her as her protégée. This last one worried about the financial aspect. All her new dresses were so expensive as never Raoul could pay off her. Émilie laughed at her. She had enough money to allow to dress Christine as a real doll and she didn't deprive herself. She loved the young ballerina for her innocence and her freshness. She would have liked having a daughter who looked like her.

The lessons in deportment had been useless. The rigor of Madame Giry's exercises had conferred to the girl a majestic bearing. Christine showed herself a diligent pupil during the learning of the etiquette during the reception being given in her honor, every eye would be riveted on her and the Vicomtesse de Chagny had hoped that with the support of her friend, no dissonance on behalf of the new fiancée would allow to make chatter or to make regret to her husband having accepted this union. Émilie de Noailles was not all worried for Christine because, in Paris, her replacement of the Carlotta previously had been really well noticed. And it amazed nobody that the young Vicomte de Chagny was in love with this new opera singer.

In the evening of the reception, Christine was very nervous. The Comtesse came to join her in her room while she was doing her hair by a chambermaid.

" You are a rough diamond, my dear, which we splendidly cut in a single week. The most talented of the silversmiths would be green with envy'' Émilie complimented her.

Christine also was magnificent in her dress of a pale hair was usually loose because of her curls but the domestic of the Comtesse had made the exploit by means of hairpins. A magnificent bun rose over the head and some ringlets gave to her hairstyle a noble sight without severity. Raoul had offered her a finery of ruby, when he had come visit her the day after her moving and Christine had chosen her dress so that it agrees with this invaluable present.

Regrettably, Christine, who had had the hope to see Raoul every day, had been disappointed. This last one had not meant visiting her but he wrote her daily to explain her about the headway of the preparations for the reception. The young woman was saddened with this separation. The De Noailles Manor was standing on the road of Versailles a few miles away from Paris. The tens of kilometers which separated the young couple was a brake in their reunion. Luckily, the Comtesse had made everything to occupy Christine, leading her in the best shops of Paris. She had also watched not to pass by the district of the opera so that the girl didn't become melancholic. In fact, Émilie had acted at request of Raoul. This last one had handed her a fold during his visit with some demands which he kindly requested her to execute for him. In other, do not pass near the opera, nor to speak about Christine's past in this place. The Vicomte seemed to want to protect his fiancée and Émilie hoped that this emotional surprotection did not suffocate Christine. But she knew that the youth love is always extravagant. She preferred not to intervene in Raoul's requirements because it did not concern her.

When they arrived to the de Chagny Mansion, all the facade was lit and hackney cabs accumulated in front of the entry. The Comtesse smiled to Christine.

" I preferred to wait that most of the guests already arrived. Your entrance will be really imposing. It is always good to arrive late in circumstances like these. At least, everybody will hurry up to greet you. I saved you an endless wait when the first arrived remains there to stare at you from head to foot. Enter the ring now. "

Christine was relieved of the presence of the Comtesse by her side. This last one was right. The guests rushed to greet her when Georges de Chagny made the official presentations, under a thunder of applause. Christine had suddenly a recollection of Hannibal's first one when she had been the center of interest. She had the strange feeling that it was in another life. Raoul came to meet her lastly. The eyes shone, he was subjugated by the beauty of his betrothed.

Christine was finally happy. The evening passed magnificently well. A small ball was given before the dinner and the young couple opened the dance by a waltz.

"I love you, my little Lotte.''

''Me too, Raoul. You remember, years ago, Father played for the evenings of reception...''

''We hid under tables and you wanted to be like the ladies.''

''Yes...''

'' I believe that your wish came true. The only matter which annoys me, it is that not is not me who offered you this dress.''

''You remember of that also?'' Christine was amazed.

''My darling, even a single second with you can't be forgotten."

When the dinner was served, Christine followed scrupulously the lessons of the Comtesse. She took exactly the good glass, the good fork, the good knife, the good spoon at the right time. All this under the critical eye of Raoul's father and the one of Émilie, amused. At the end of the meal, Raoul got up and rang his glass with his knife.

" Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to have you among us this discovered the one who makes my heart beating since my earliest childhood and in spite of the powerful love which I have for her, I did not think possible to be able to love someone more and more every day. "

Everybody sighed of emotion.

" Also, today, we celebrate our engagement but something is missing to concretize them. "

He left the table and got closer to Christine. He knelt down near her and held a jewel case out to her. She opened it and discovered a golden ring set by a magnificent glittering diamond.

"Raoul, it is magnificent.''

''This ring is in our family since several generations. My mother makes a present of it to you.''

''But, Vicomtesse, it is too much honour. You should keep it'' Christine said shyly.

''It pleases me. It is of my duty to pass on it in my tour to my future daughter-in-law'' the viscountess of Chagny answered.

Christine was touched by this gesture. Raoul put it on her left ring finger and kissed her on the hand. Everybody applauded. This ring was very different from the one that they had chosen at Swarovski in last October. She had never worn it on the finger but around the neck so that the secret remained whole. This ring had been the symbol of the triangle that the Phantom, the Vicomte and she had formed; a sign of rivalry between both men, as if this ring had represented Christine's heart.

At the moment, the ring of the de Chagny on the finger, she really understood the commitment of a life which she got ready to take. She enjoyed it but also had a little apprehension. ''Every future bride must feel it'' she said to herself...

_**I wait for your reviews! It is always a pleasure to know what the readers think of your story...So tell me your opinions... You are so many to read my story so why don't you let me a little review? I don't understand :_(**_


	11. Chapter 11: Spleen

**Chapter 11: Spleen**

"I am sorry, my love, I do not know when I shall return exactly in Paris.''

''Raoul, you had promised me to be always beside me. One month! It will be endless...''

''You have the company of the Comtesse de Noailles. You will not miss with the preparations for the marriage. Don't be sad, Christine. It tears my heart to leave you but I promised to my father to accompany him in London to settle with Lord Lancaster the cancellation of the engagement with his daughter. I owe repair this error. I made the oath. Furthermore, my father decided to prepare me in the succession of his business. Even if I have a title of nobility, I have to be capable of leading correctly our companies so that we can live comfortably. I shall return fast. I miss you already. "

Such had been their first subject of quarrel, the day after the reception in the De Chagny Mansion .Raoul was informed, since the agreement of his father for their marriage, that he had to go in England and Christine had a grudge against him for hiding it to her.

OOoOoOoOoOoO

February had given way to March and already beginnings of the spring announced. The young woman was depressed since the absence of her fiancé, in spite of their daily correspondence. The solitude weighed her. Even the Comtesse did not succeed in distracting her. Moreover, this last one often went out in the De Chagny Mansion to organize with the Vicomtesse the marriage so that Christine could take care of nothing. She had to stay in the De Noailles Manor where the private teachers succeeded one another: Latin, English, German and even Mathematics.

The Vicomte de Chagny having been afraid that the education of his daughter-in-law was abandoned for the benefit of the dance, he wanted that she takes advantage of her spare time to end her fulfillment and help at best his son in the management of their future house.

Émilie de Noailles felt that her friend was dying from day to day. She did not almost smile. So she took her out of her thoughts, while Christine pretended to read in the library.

" Come on, my dear. I believe to have a surprise for you'' the Comtesse said.

Christine put her volume of Cicero on the table and followed Émilie up to her music lounge. A man of about forty years was already there.

" I present you, Monsieur Carnet, music and singing teacher! It will certainly be more pleasant than your Latin!'' She said in leaving Christine with his new teacher.

She greeted him. Monsieur Carnet was a tall and spare man. He knew that Christine had almost natural talents for the singing and he asked her if she wanted to practice. She agreed immediately, too happy to be able to sing again. She had not done it since the end of the Opera. She did not even dare to sing the slightest note. The manor house possessed so big rooms as her voice echoed when she spoke. Her discreet nature had not wanted to disturb the Comtesse. Because although this one had shown her the admiration for her voice, she had never asked her to sing for her, since that moment.

Monsieur Carnet settled down in the grand piano and began to warm the voice of the young woman with singing exercises. She had not trained for a long time. The Angel had not given her lessons anymore since the show of "Il Muto". However, notes came with fluidity. Her new teacher had a way different to give her lessons and the way he taught was very monotonous and boring. Nothing to do with her Angel who, in spite of his severity and his rigor, knew how to lead her voice in the most unsuspected abilities. At the end of three quarters of an hour, Monsieur Carnet congratulated her and confided her that he could not regrettably bring to her much more. The young woman had a talent for the opera and he had no skills which suited her. Christine knew it very well and was not disappointed. What saddened her, it was the fact that she had taken no pleasure to sing and it unsettled her.

Had she changed to a way she didn't like singing anymore?

Maybe it was the fact that she knew in her mind that she would never come back on stage?

Monsieur Carnet guessed her disappointment and asked her if she knew how to play an instrument. She answered him no. Christine would have liked playing violin like her father but her teacher answered her that the ladies usually played the piano. She resigned herself then to learn piano. Monsieur Carnet taught her basic rules, difference between the white and black keys, the utility of pedals. He showed her an easy score so that it was a piece for one hand and was surprised when she announced him that she did not know the music theory.

" How did you learn to sing right, then?'' He asked her.

She was only able to answer him that his former teacher had another way of teaching her. According to him, she had an exceptional ear, what exempted her from music theory. This excuse was enough. Monsieur Carnet would not have been able to understand that her former mentor had taught her the singing, hidden in the shade for ten years, what had made the learning of music theory impossible and useless.

Since, she was learning piano and music theory with Monsieur Carnet three times a week.

Raoul came back from England the week later. He was happy that everything happened well. Lord Lancaster had not got angry excessively that he disengaged because, according to him, he had made only a simple suggestion to Georges de Chagny. The young Vicomte had learnt the rudiments of the numerous negotiations which his father led across the Atlantic.

Christine was happy to be finally able to see him again. There was only he who could console her and cheer her up. Émilie was also satisfied with the return of the Vicomte because her protégée was bored, even if she tried to let nothing appear. She had become paler and paler in one month and ate almost nothing. The Comtesse had understood that the girl had a gentle and melancholic nature.

Raoul took her out of this sphere with his return but he was able to visit Christine only twice a week. Then, slowly, this one dived back into a dark sadness. Émilie de Noailles prayed so that the marriage arrived as soon as possible and so that her friend, apparently so attached to Raoul, could finally find life worth living again.

OooOoOoOoOoO

Christine walked blindly. The voice which she heard was closer and closer. She ran almost now to join this sound of fascinating tenor, her Angel. She ran, ran until she was out of breath. She had so much wanted to hear this voice but what she wanted, above all, it was to see again the face of its owner. He was singing for her. He called her and intoned her name. She cried because she) did not manage to reach him. She wanted to shout, to say to him that she was there but no sound went out of her mouth. Suddenly, the music stopped and the light was putting on. She was standing in a place that she recognized to be the hall of the De Chagny Mansion. Raoul waited for her in front of the big staircase.

Christine woke up with a start. Her heart was throbbing violently. She sweated. Nevertheless, she wrapped herself up in her blankey and while she tried to fall asleep again, she began sobbing.

Every night, since Raoul's departure, she made this dream. This dream which haunted her and obsessed her, even during the day. It had been a pipe dream to pray so that the return of her fiancé put an end to this nightmare. Raoul had returned and nothing had changed.

_**Then reviews?**_


	12. Chapter 12: The wedding

**Chapter 12: The wedding**

_**Hello everybody. Here is maybe the chapter which you look forward. And to please you, we are going to find at first our dear and sweet Erik...**_

Erik held the piece of newspaper between his hands. He had so read and read again the article concerning the announcement of the marriage of Christine and the viscount that he knew it by heart. The paper was crumpled because it was so often been spent in his fingers.

The fateful day had come. The dawn of Saturday, April 30th, 1871 had appeared. He did not know if he had to be delighted of it or to cry for it.

It was only thanks to him if she married Raoul. He had modelled her happiness by annulling his own. If he had not paid the dowry, she couldn't do anything but return to him. And he had not done it.

When Antoinette Giry had come to confide him that Christine's engagement was strongly compromised by Georges de Chagny, he had acted impulsively. He had sent Madame Giry with the necessary money for the settling of the girl. He wanted to be relieved of this obsession which consumed him. He wanted to live at peace and never hearing about her. However, he had wanted that she knew that her future happiness had depended only on him and not on the de Chagny family. He had given to the choreographer the bridal dress that he had jealously cherished during so many years, as well as a letter and a single rose, the last souvenir of him.

Unconsciously, he had hoped that Christine, by understanding the identity of her benefactor, would be taken by remorse and came back to him. This evening, he had had this crazy hope and he had waited for her, near the de Chagny Mansion.

The Phantom of the Opera's manias were difficult to erase and when she had gone out accompanied by another woman, he had intended to follow their cab. But Erik Giry took the opposite road and ran away.

It had been three months since he had gone out again. He lived cloistered in his apartments. He had left windows condemned by wooden boards and kept curtains closed day and night, living in the darkness. Two oil lamps gave him a little of light. He had never lived in the daylight and he felt better so.

During three months he had fought for kicking the habit of this passion which had destroyed him. He had believed to become crazy, as an alcoholic to whom we refuse a glass of absinthe. Christine had been a drug for him during ten years and the rough detoxification had been terrible.

Antoinette had tried to help him. But he needed solitude. He heard her behind the door, calling him, asking him if everything was alright. He did not answer her. Even Meg had tried to get closer to him. She brought him a warm meal every day but she had to leave the tray in front of the door. He did not open to her. He waited she went away to take it. When he ate...

Nevertheless, he would have liked knowing if they were fine but he did not feel the strength to speak to them.

The only thing that he had wanted, it was killing, killing to calm this fury which welled up inside him. Then, due to laying down during hours on his bed, in the silence and the complete darkness, waiting that this obsession went out of his soul, his mind and his body, the fury, the regrets had flown away little by little.

When he felt the strength, he went out of his room, by having taken back a suitable look. He had lived more than two months like a wild animal. He did not shave any more, did not wear any more his mask, did not take care any more of him. He had finally taken care of his appearance and had worn his mask, his companion of a life, again.

As Meg arrived with his meal, he opened the door in front of her. She was so astonished that she dropped the tray which crashed on the ground. She was petrified. Not by the sight of Erik but by fact that he had gone out of his lethargy so abruptly. Madame Giry, by hearing the crash, had run up to know the cause. She had been been worried to death by noticing Erik's attitude. She was afraid that at any time he commited a stupid thing. But she didn't know him very well. Certainly, dark thoughts had invaded him, at the beginning, but he was incapable to carry out them. He has endured so many misfortunes throughout his life that, if he had had a weak mind, he would be no more in this world for a long time.

He went out little by little from his shell and opened on the outside world. He continued to stay in his apartments but accepted, now, that Meg brought him his meal in his lounge. The girl was always intimidated by him. She stayed on her guard. He understood her behaviour but, to be forgiven for his fault, he made the effort to urge her to stay with him the time he lunched. They learned to know each other.

The problem was that Meg was hardly talkative and Erik did not like entrusting. ''The result of a life under the protective influence of Antoinette Giry'' had answered him Meg, while he had spoken to her about their problem of communication. He had laughed at it. It was the first time he had laughed indeed for a long time, such a long time that he would not have known to say when. Meg was surprised with his behaviour but she laughed with him wholeheartedly. He was satisfied to be able to learn again to live, thanks to her.

Madame Giry was absent all day long for her new work at the dancing school. Erik would have preferred that she stopped. He had placed a part of his money, what allowed them to live suitably without the salary of the choreographer. But she had refused. She got her pay so that Meg and she are independent financially from Erik. She did not want to feel more indebted than now: he had offered them a roof.

She had insisted so that Meg worked only a few days a week with her. She introduced her to the direction and to the lessons of the young pupils so that she can replace her at the appropriate moment. During her spare time, Meg was in charge of looking after Erik.

This last one had asked her to buy the " Journal de Paris" daily. He red it with greediness to find maybe a note on Christine and the viscount.

Madame Giry and Meg had had no news of Christine since her engagement. It was not to displease to Antoinette because if she had kept in touch with her, she knew that Erik would meet her again. It was not possible: he had so suffered and took a long time recovering.

One evening of April, Antoinettecame back at home, the worried look. Meg questioned her about the cause of her bother and her mother stretched out to her an envelope of a pale pink sent to Madame Giry and to her. She opened it and red the letter of the same color.

_" You are cordially invited for the wedding of Mademoiselle Christine Daaé and the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny in Saint Germain church on Saturday, April 30th, 1871. "_

"A servant brought me this letter to the dancing school. According to him, it comes personally from Christine''Antoinette said to her daughter.

''Will we go to this wedding?'' Meg asked, curious about what her mother thought of it.

''I do not still know. Everything depends on Erik It is maybe necessary to inform him but I am afraid that he reacts badly. He made so much effort to pull trough. I don't want that everything is reduced to nothingness.''

''He is not stupid, Mother. He knows very well that Christine, fiancée, the marriage will necessarily take place some day. It is even him who allowed their union... "

At this moment, Erik came in the lounge which occupied both women. He put on the small table in front of them the piece of newspaper dedicated to both lovers.

" Do not worry about me, Antoinette. It has been several days I know it. Anything nor anybody will prevent me from attending this wedding. I need to make sure she is fine. "

OOoOoOoOoOoO

Madame Giry and Meg arrived at the church adjoining the cemetery where Gustave Daaé rested, at the agreed hour. They had rented a cab to go there. Erik had gone there on his own. Antoinette was not quiet and had asked to Meg to be watchful throughout the ceremony and looked after Erik: what he had granted to Christine, he could also take it back to her.

The guests had arrived and already took place in the church. Madame Giry and her daughter noticed fast that they were the only knowledge of Christine to have been invited. Everybody belonged to the high society or to the de Chagny family. They sat down on the last bench.

The ceremony began. Raoul, richly dressed, waited in front of the altar. He was overjoyed and did not hide it. The guests kept silent when the orchestra began the wedding march.

Everyone turned the glance to the entrance of the church. Outside, the sun glittered. Christine appeared then, magnificent in her dress embroidered with lace which underlined her slim waist. She held a luxurious bouquet of white flowers in the hands. Her veil masked her face. She walked with a slow step, rhythmed by the music. Nobody was beside her to hold her arm. Only the Comtesse Noailles followed her some feet back.

Madame Giry did not stop putting her glance quite everywhere: between pillars, towards the sacristy, towards the confessional... She tightened nervously the pieces of her dress with her hands. Meg knew that she was afraid that Erik appeared during thel ceremony. He was unpredictable and capable of everything, in spite of his promise not to intervene. Christine arrived at the level of Raoul and the priest began the office.

One hour later, came the moment of the exchange of the vows. Madame Giry stiffened. She dreaded this decisive moment. Meg understood it. She had caught a glimpse, near the entrance, of a staircase which had to lead to the bell tower. She put a hand on the shoulder of her mother, ordering her to calm and got up discreetly to go to the staircase. This last one led to a first landing where a passageway followed all the width of the church and passed under a rose window. The stained glass was so richly colored that the rays of sun which crossed it were transformed into a myriad of color.

There Erik was standing, near the staircase, the gloved hands were put on the stony rail of the passageway.

" Erik?'' Meg whispered.

He did not answer her. Raoul's vows had just been pronounced. It was Christine's turn to speak. Erik was absorbed by the scene and Meg could not distinguish his features. She was standing on his right and his mask hid his face.

Christine talked with a slow and moderate voice, repeating the words of the priest. Her soft voice resounded in the church. The cleric asked then:

" If somebody opposes to this union, he must speak now or keeps silent for ever. "

Erik's gloved hands tightened on the rail. He would have been able to break it because he tightened it with all his strength. Meg felt his pain and, slowly, she put a hand on his own. Erik, however, did not seem to notice her.

"I am not going to intervene, I did not intend to do it. Your mother and you did not have to be worried.''

''I do not care about the ceremony. I worry about you, it is all. You know, Erik, you are not alone. Not anymore now. We are there for you . "

" I declare you husband and wife. You can kiss the bride. "

Raoul raised Christine's veil. This one, the smile on the lips, collected Raoul's kiss.

Tears were difficult to repress for Erik. If Meg had not been standing near him, he didn't not know if he would have managed to remain immovable and stoical in front of events which happened in front of his eyes.

What an idea he had had, poor madman!

He felt bad to have come. The jealousy held him.

What he would have wanted to tak the place of the viscount at this moment!

Raoul, without knowing it, was for ever indebted him and Erik regretted bitterly having offered him his most precious property.

The ceremony ended.

" We are going to return at home. We shall wait for you'' Meg whispered.

Erik agreed. Meg tightened her grip on his hand in sign of encouragement and empathy. She went away.

The newlyweds got down the path under the eyes of the guests and under those of Erik. He could not remove his glance on Christine. He knew her well for all these years to observe her in the shadow.

In three months, she had enormously changed, as if the spark which shone in her eyes had gone away. She was pale, so pale as the statue that he had modelled in her image and circles were outlined under her eyes. Even if she smiled to everybody, Erik was sure of this fact: Christine was not happy and he did not understand why...

OOoOoOoOoOoO

Christine, Madame la Vicomtesse Raoul de Chagny, went down the main path of the church with her husband. She forced to smile. All that she had wished, she had obtained. She had fought for her freedom, to be Raoul's wife. Why did she thus feel nothing on this day which should have been the most beautiful of her life?

Since the beginning of the ceremony, she had felt observed. She knew very well this sensation. Her eyes went instinctively under the rose window. There, their glances met. Her heart stopped beating in her chest and she stiffened. Raoul looked at her lovingly and held her hand more strongly. Christine showed him a lookwhich she wanted the gladest possible and they continued to walk.

She put back briefly her glance there where He had been standing some seconds previously. There was nobody. She wondered if she had not dreamed, if it was not an illusion or her mind which played on her tricks.

Maybe due to making the same dream every night, did she become crazy?

Raoul and she got ready to go out of the church. Christine perceived outside Meg and Madame Giry which took a cab. Their presences, further to her invitation, meant that He had been here also.

She knew that her former surrogate mother was bound to Him. He had attended the wedding which He had offered her on a plate. He had not totally given up her, in spite of the choice which she had followed. She did not realize that unconsciously she had wanted that he intervened during the ceremony.

Had she made a mistake?

However, at this moment, she really felt on her left ring finger, the weight of her commitment towards Raoul.

_**So what do you think of this chapter? I admit it, it is very difficult to write on the feelings and the way of thinking of Erik. He is very difficult to understand. Thus if you find that he is not anymore like the Phantom of the Opera, I shall answer you that his point of vue has changed a lot further to Christine's kiss. I like developing the characters and I want that we follow their psychological changes. Erik, like Christine, will thus continue to evolve. They are not anymore at the opera. That's why he let the ceremony going on.**_

_**If this chapter was centred on the marriage, the next will be centred on what happens the wedding night! I let you think what is going to happen; D**_

_**Reviews, Please!**_


	13. Chapter 13: The wedding night

**Chapter 13: The wedding night**

Christine had just ended to get dressed for the night. She had stopped brushing her hair and they fell as a waterfall of brown curls along her back. She was in Raoul's bedroom in the de Chagny Mansion. This one had been fitted for the young couple: a dressing table had taken place next to a writting desk. The decoration, as the hangings and the tapestry, had been changed during their engagement, to welcome the new couple.

She wondered what she had to do now.

Did she have to wait for Raoul so either did she had to go to bed?

She knew very well what he would expect from her this evening and, with this thought, she was taken by shivers of anxiety. She knew about the way it happens. Since the beginning of her life at the Opera, she had been the witness of the dealings of certain chorus girls and ballerinas. Number of them, after the performances, went out with men come to admire them on stage. Some girls treated their services, the others became the mistresses of fortunate men who maintained them. When they came back, they did not hesitate to tell unblushingly their affairs and during certain parties given in the first one evenings, the couples did not even go out of the opera.

The Comtesse deNoailles, the day before, had allowed to speak to her about the wedding night. Émilie had become Christine's friend. After these three last months together, they were become very closed together and she felt the duty to inform the young girl of what it would happen.

At the moment, Christine was going to do her conjugal duty and she was more frightened than an evening of first one performance.

She was there, lost in her thoughts, beating about the bush, when she heard a knock at the door.

" Come in.'' She said with a stiffled voice.

When she saw her husband opening the door, she tried to breathe deeply to calm down. Raoul was in nightshirt, too. He seemed also nervous, what relieved her a little.

He had never known any other women, preferring to keep himself for his wife rather than to frequent loose women. It was a utter disarray for his father.

He remained standing against the door which he had just closed.

" Good evening, Christine. Does the room please you? Do we have to midify something? As we leave for honeymoon tomorrow, we could ask to rectify certain details if you wish . "

Raoul tried to fill the silence which settled down and to dissipate the embarrassment which both felt.

" Everything is fine, Raoul. There is nothing to change.'' Christine answered him.

While they spoke together, he had gone into bed. Christine summoned up all her courage, got up and went to join him.

" Do I Have to switch off the lights or do you want that I let them switch on?'' He asked her.

''I do not know. Make as you want.'' She said to him.

Their uneasiness became ridiculous.

Raoul switched off then the light which burned near his side of the bed, then he bent over her to switch off the one who was lit near his wife. The darkness settled down. He remained over her and began to kiss her face. She let him doing what he wanted, without moving.

Bit by bit, he became more forward and began to explore with his hands the rest of her body. Then, he removed his own shirt with a little of clumsiness. Christine made a point of removing her own.

She felt her heart throbbing violently in her breast. So strong that it would have been able to explode. However, the sensations of her body were not in agreement with what they should have been. She did not tremble with desire but with fear.

Feeling his wife tensing, Raoul stopped and tried to reassure her.

" I shall not hurt you. If you want , we can wait, if you do not feel ready...''

''Everything is fine.'' She finally said.

She did not want to hurt Raoul. She felt that he desired her and did not want to waste this so important night. The eyes of her husband shone with a way that she had still never seen.

He began again the exploration of this body which belonged to him, now, and kissed her with more ardour. Christine gave back his kisses.

While she became his, a sharp pain tore her the lower abdomen and she was not able to repress a shout of suffering. She caught Raoul's shoulders, hoping that it would end.

The Comtesse had warned her of this deaf pain which appeared the first time. She had advised to her to relax and had assured her that the pleasure would come later. But the desire did not come. She could only focus on the pain which she felt.

Some minutes later, Raoul withdrew from her, panting and apparently having carried out his wish.

" How are you?''

''I am fine, darling.''

''I love you, my little Lotte.''

''Me too, Raoul. "

This one embraced her and he eventually fell asleep against her.

Christine remained motionless. The thoughts turned in her head. She suddenly understood her stupidity.

When Raoul kissed her, she did not feel agitations but just tenderness for him. As a sister loves her brother. They knew each other for a long time...

She had still remained to feel for him a pure and innocent, artless youth love. While the love which Raoul felt for her had evolved naturally with the years.

She loved him, she had no doubt. But not with a carnal way like him.

Everything cleared up in her mind. She did not love Raoul as she would have owed. She loved the one who haunted her dreams for these last months. That's why she had not managed to stop thinking of Him. That's why she felt dying a little more every day.

The desire, she had known it with every embrace that he had slid against her skin, with every word which He had pronounced for her. He had on her such an influence than in his Kingdom of Music, she would give herself to Him without the slightest restraint, without the slightest modesty, if He had asked her.

The chains which He had wanted to bound her had seemed to her too heavy to carry formerly but she understood now, too late, which those ones who bound her to Raoul were more stifling. She had wanted only to be free and, nevertheless, she had chained up herself with this marriage not because she feared of being alone, but by fear of not feeling protected.

The pain which she felt in her body was always stabbing but more heart-rending was the one that she felt inside her heart. She began crying silently, her husband was sleeping beside her.

She was madly in love with a phantom and she had always loved him. Since the beginning.

She should now spend the rest of her life by accepting this evidence.

_**I have already red many of fics about the Phantom and most consider Raoul as a macho man and a "bastard" from the beginning of their marriage. For my part, I prefer to think that he was also innocent as Christine at first (we cannot attribute him all the sins of the earth!). Otherwise why Christine, who knows him since a long time, would have married him? But I want to reassure you, do not worry, he too will evolve in the future...**_

_**Reviews are essential, this time!**_


	14. Chapter 14: An endless waiting

**Chapter 14: An endless waiting**

The shutters in Christine's bedroom were closed and in spite of the half-opened windows, no breeze penetrated into the room.

July 1876 was scorching. At this beginning of the afternoon, Christine was stretched out on her bed but the suffocating heat prevented her from sleeping.

It had been already for three months, she was confined in the room where she had spent her first night to the de Chagny Mansion. The summer in Paris turned out to be a real torture.

She would have given anything to be at the house by the sea in Normandy, as they went to it every year!

But Raoul had ordered her to stay in the capital: it was only here that the best doctors were. Furthermore, in her state, no travel would have been allowed her.

She caressed automatically the prominent belly. In eight and a half months of pregnancy, she always seemed very frail. She had almost lost the child in the fifth month and after several days to take care of her and the future baby, the doctor had recommended her to stay in bed until her delivery. She would have so wanted to move, just to walk but Raoul and Eugénie de Chagny watched scrupulously that she respected the orders that the doctor had given to her.

If her husband had been able to put her under glass, he would certainly have done it.

Since their marriage, five years ago, Raoul only wished that his wife was pregnent. He hoped for it, not only, to have heirs but also so that his wife find life worth living completely.

Christine played with the necklace which she wore on the neck, since her honeymoon. Raoul had offered her this pendant decorated with a heart-shaped cut sapphire: ''her wedding present'' he had said to her.

Her memories flew then.

She remembered her arrival in Normandy. The house was a few kilometers away from Deauville. Raoul had thought that it would be the best place for a honeymoon.

Christine was a person so simple to live that she had not wanted to go abroad. What counted the most for her, it was the link with her past, with her father. Raoul had made for her the surprise of the destination and when she had understood where they went, she was overjoyed.

He had let her rediscover every hidden recesses of the house. Every room reminded her a moment of the past, an anecdote. She remembered everything, in spite of she had only spent two summers in this villa, accompanied with Gustave Daaé to entertain the de Chagny.

The highlight of the visit had been the attic where Raoul and her, when she was five years old, had fun during the rainy days reading old Scandinavian tales which the violinist always kept with him. Christine had been used to this folklore, not to forget her Scandinavian origins.

In the evening of their arrival, Raoul had led her to the attic. They had sat on an old blanket and had drunken some chocolate, as eleven years previously... Then, from the bottom of the room, he had brought her an old safe. Christine had opened it and had discovered the books which her father had omitted to take again with him, when they had had to return in Paris, his disease aggravating. She had cried with joy then. She was so grateful to Raoul. He always tried to satisfy her. She had opened the book she preferred between all and had begun reading her favorite tale. In spite of years, she did not almost need to stare at the pages, she knew it still by heart. Raoul had remained stretched out near her. When she arrived at the back page, the pendant was there, hung on the binding. It was his final surprise.

In this house, she felt calmed and in safety, as when she was a child.

Raoul showed himself enormously protective towards her. This kind of attention had however its drawbacks. When they went to Deauville, in the evening, Raoul decided on the show they went to watch. In her big despair, they went only to the theater or to the symphonic concerts. Christine would have given all that she had to return to an opera.

If she did not train her voice anymore, she had continued her exercises of ballet dance. She had spent ten years of her life for the dance, she wanted to keep all that she had acquired. Moreover, in her room in the Mansion, a place was reserved for her and a barre was put so that she could practice.

But she always missed the opera terribly. Christine had dared only one year after their honeymoon, in their return to Deauvile for the summer, to speak about it.

" Could we go to the opera? " She had made her request with a quite small voice, as a child who would knew she asked for the moon for her birthday.

Raoul had never talked again of the drama of the fire. He had seemed to be shocked by her request and asked her if it was very necessary to keep coming out with dark memories. Since their engagement, they had never talked again of the Opera Populaire, as if the subject had become taboo. But he gave in.

That very evening, they went to the small opera of Deauville. Christine had never go to an opera like a spectator. She discovered everything with new eyes, that ones of a viscountess. When the representation began, the dark desires that she had buried reappeared, as if the wound in her heart which she had put one year to bandage had remained gaping, hardly healed. It was not in this box that she wanted to be but on stage and more insidiously, it was not Raoul she wanted near her to share this moment. Upset, she implored her husband to leave before even the end of the first act. Raoul found nothing to add. He gave her his arm and they immediately left. He had been certain of her reaction. His wife had not recovered yet of this traumatizing night in 1871.

Christine's melancholy was again more intense after this. She did everything to be pleasant to Raoul but she showed taste for nothing, letting him choose for her. As if, for her, every day was an endless waiting. It was since this moment that he hoped she became pregnant. A child would only come to cheer up her life. He had regrettably realized that the enjoyment of the young Christine was dead in the same time than her father and finally her enthusiasm in the same time than the opera. He had tried everything but he had acknowledged that he could do nothing to remedy it.

Their intimate moments were also brief and without heat. If he had not worried about the reactions of his wife at first, he had eventually understood that something was wrong. Certainly, she made love to him but without any enjoyment. She seemed to meet only her obligations that were imposed by her marriage.

He had kept his promises: he had protected her, he had guided her in her new life. With the freedom which the marriage, Christine had accompanied him in all his travels. Thanks to hom, she had discovered a good part of Europe.

_''Anywhere you go, let me go too''_ they had sworn.

The problem was that Christine, even beside him, often seemed to be thousand miles away from him. She did not confide in him. Years had made that they went away from each other. In the society, they were known as the most solid and loving couple which everyone knew but, in private, this idyllic image began to crack.

When in 1874, Georges de Chagny died brutally from a stroke, Raoul took back the family business. He fell bodily in his obligations and his business. He often left for travel and the work became prosperous. Christine, at this moment, did not accompany him any more. She stayed in the de Chagny Mansion during the winter and in Normandy the summer. Eugénie de Chagny, her mother-in-law, stayed with her. She had both a pleasant character. They appreciated the company of the other one.

Christine stopped her daydreams by a knock on the door. She sat against her pile of pillows.

" Come in'' she said.

''My dear Christine, how are you today?'' The comtesse de Noailles asked.

In five years, Émilie had become a great friend. With her, she could a little confide and find some comfort.

"Fine.''

''You have never known how lying. Say me the truth.''

''To tell you everything, I feel on the point of bursting'' she said in repressing a smile. ''If this wave of heat persists, I believe that I am going to melt. Furthermore, I do not know if after the childbirth, I shall again know how to to put back one foot in front of the other one due to being cloistered in this bed.''

''This seems to me more realistic than a simple 'fine' '' Émilie laughed.

''I do not want to complain. I owe to protect this child the best. Raoul has long-awaited... "

Christine remembered this waiting, every month, which failed with every new menstruation. She knew that the few sexual intercourses reports the couple had didn't put things right. But everybody began to wonder in the circle of acquaintances of the de Chagny, if the young viscountess was not sterile. So, this last one had been delighted to know that she was pregnent. The little human being who grew in her was the hope to live other thing than this monotonous life and full of listlessness in which she got bogged down.

" We see very well that it is not the men who give birth!'' Émilie exclaimed. ''I also suppose that he has requirements between a girl or a boy!''

'He would really love a girl'' Christine admitted.

''And you, my dear?''

''I just want that my child is healthy. For the rest, I have no requirements.''

'' I recognize your soft temperament'' the Comtesse went into raptures.

''Did you decorate with flowers the grave of my father, Émilie?'' Christine asked.

''My friend, as you asked me, I make it every Sunday. Soon, you can take care of it yourself again.''

''There is not anything particular concerning the mausoleum?''

'' No, my dear, it is maintained by Pierre, the servant of your husband, as usual.''

'' You do not understand what I want to say, Émilie. Isn't there anybody else who decorates with flowers the grave?''

''Nobody. Why? A relative of your father should decorate with flowers it also?'' The curious Comtesse asked her.

''No, of course no'' Christine answered, embarrassed.

She had not seen Him again, since her marriage. She had covered the hope that He would show Himself again to her. That was why she had taken the habits from which she didn't depart: every Sunday, after the mass, she meditated in the Saint Germain cemetery beside Gustave Daaé's grave. She went there always alone. Raoul stayed in the carriage waiting for her, leaving her this moment of solitude in the meditation. She hoped every week for a sign of His part. A simple rose to show her that He was always alive and that He thought of her...

But for five long years, no flower, no appearance had cheered up her life. He had kept his promise to interfere never again in her life.

She had written several times to Madame Giry. She had sent letters to the new dancing school which she managed but she had never had answers in return. She was aware of the fact that her bad behavior seemed to be bad towards the Giry. Since the invitation for her wedding, she did not have been able to see again Madame Giry and Meg. She did not know where they lived nor if they were fine.

She had wanted to go to the school to see her former ballet mistress but she had always been prevented by her mother-in-law or by Raoul. Her husband, more than her, knew that inevitably a link with Madame Giry would mean the return of the Phantom and it was out of the question.

Christine lived thus in a cage, certainly gilded, but it always remained a prison.

While Emilie was occupied with telling her in the detail the reception that she had given the day before for the Bastille Day, Christine was bent double by the strength of a contraction. It was not the first one of the day. She knew what it meant.

"Christine, everything is alright?

''Can you call the doctor, Émilie, as well as my husband? I believe that the moment came. "

_**Please, please, forgive me for the very long delay to update this story!**_

_**Don't punjab me! I have just bought a new computer and now the updates will be more frequent. I promise you.**_

_**I would like to thank everybody who put this story in your favorite or in alert. I know you are a lot to read it and I would like to know if you like it! Please, I beg you: review!**_


	15. Chapter 15: Christine's shadow

**Chapter 15: Christine's shadow**

" Is it a boy or a girl?''

''It is a boy'' Meg answered by reading the invitation to the baptism of de Chagny's son. ''His name is Raoul Georges Gustave de Chagny.''

''Poor arrogant man!'' Erik became furious. ''I recognize very well the Vicomte's smugness. Making the choice to give the name of his own grandfathers before those of his wife! He won't stop until he has prided himself on his heir!''

''Erik, calm down.''

''I don't take orders from you, Meg Giry! "

This last one lowered her eyes. She knew Erik enough to know that nobody could demand anything from him. In five years, she had eventually appreciated the man behind the mask but the Phantom sometimes reappeared in his sudden and rough angers. During these moments, as now, she preferred to keep quiet and to leave him alone.

Erik had changed a lot since the moving in of the choreographer and her daughter. He had learnt to live with people who were aware of his presence, his existence and who cared about him. He had so much had the instinct and the habit to remain hidden, to live his life through those of the others like a shadow.

The socialization had turned out delicate but possible. Meg and her mother had attached the greatest importance to him. He existed thanks to them. Antoinette Giry had redeemed herself to have given him up after the death of her husband.

The only thing to be regretted was that Meg was held as hostage by her mother to watch him, to avoid that he saw again Christine. Every letter received from the Vicomtesse de Chagny had been burned at once in the dancing school. Meg had seen her mother destroying them one after the other. She had not felt the courage to inform Erik about it, quite as she had not felt the courage to admit to her mother that he went every Sunday to the Saint Germain cemetery. All together they were a family but Meg felt that it could fly into pieces at any time, if unspoken comments were discovered.

During Christine's wedding, Erik had been shocked by the transformation of the young woman. He did not understand. She had everything to be happy. He had been so intrigued that he did not have been able to refrain from spying on her actions, especially since she has been so gloomy, even after her return from her honeymoon.

He observed from the outside the de Chagny Mansion, at night. But he could distinguish nothing. In the opera, everything was so easier but on unknown ground and with rooms in the first floor, he could not correctly watch her.

So, every Sunday, he hid in Gustave Daaé's mausoleum and he listened to her praying aloud, as he had done it, in January, 1871. They had nevertheless changed since this time. Christine had never sung any more the slightest note by meditating and he hadn't shown himself anymore to her nor been listened.

Christine was a drug for him and he knew now that he could never come off her. This Sunday espionage was his only reason to let the days followed each other. Always, he was resolved to come to light, when she arrived in the path where rested Gustave Daaé. Hidden inside the mausoleum, he remained the eyes closed to listen to her, the tight fists, as if this simple movement would prevent him from executing his plans.

How many times he had thought of kidnapping her! Nobody ever accompanied her. Not even Raoul. The temptation was strong. She was so close to him: one meter, maybe two... He had only to hold out the hand to touch her, to feel again this skin against his. When she spoke, his heart was carried away. He could almost feel her breath. But always, he succeeded in controlling himself until she went away.

He spent then the next week to think about the best ways to see her again. The most difficult to bear were these three long months when the de Chagny left for Normandy, for summer or when they went on a journey. He paced up and down in his apartments like a lion in cage, when she left the capital. Although as time goes by, Christine did not accompany any more Raoul and remained in Paris the major part of the winter.

He waited only for a sign of her part, a behavior which would show him that she missed him. But years had passed, still the same, until the day when Christine confided to his father her pregnancy. He had seen her body deforming a little more every week. And so they came full circle. She was going to become a mother and was going to love a new being.

What place had Erik in her life at the moment? While he had only her...

Raoul had taken everything over the years until her soprano voice which had faded away. Everything. Except the ring that she had given to him and which rested on his heart.

At the approach of the childbirth, he had doubled his surveillance of the Mansion. He had watched for the arrival of the doctor and the midwife.

When he had understood that the moment had come, he had waited, hoping, imploring so that Christine had no complications, so that she was safe.

Then, her son had been born and she had started a family. He was demoralized... The Vicomte had destroyed in hardly five years the creature which he had put ten years to shape. He would have liked killing Raoul of one thousand possible manners.

One day, yes, one day, he would indeed find a good reason for killing him...

_**A small chapter, I have to admit it but in the next one, I have numerous surprises in store for you...**_

_**A little of patience, you know that with my new computer I try to update more often...**_

_**Give me your opinion. Nobody (but I thanks White Dragon Lady) review me and I am scared of that! I don't understand why you read but you don't say anything. Then review!**_


	16. Chapter 16: Betrayals

**Chapter 16: Betrayals**

" No, Raoul, darling, do not play with the bee. It could sting you! "

The four-year-old little boy walked in the garden of the de Chagny Mansion.

" Christine, you do not listen to what I say to you.'' Émilie complained.

''Sorry, Émilie, but he is so careless that he is going to hurt himself...''

''You should call his nursemaid. We have to speak about important things.''

''Madame Monier asked for her vacation for the day. I can take care of him alone.''

''You change the discussion. I know that it is not a subject easy to tackle but... "

The Comtesse de Noailles could not end her sentence. Christine had come down in the garden because her son cried after having fallen on the ground.

It was a beautiful day of May in this year of 1881 and the Vicomtesse de Chagny liked to benefit from the sun announcing the approach of the summer on the terrace. Émilie appreciated these afternoons to drink some lemonade with her friend while little Raoul played in the grass.

But, today, she had to confide in Christine. The secret which she kept had become too heavy to carry.

Christine came back with her son, in the arms, who continued to sob. Since his birth, she loved him more than everybody else in the world. She spoiled him so much than the boy became whimsical and had a difficult temperament.

" You should take him inside.'' The Comtesse suggested.

Christine resigned herself to call a domestic so that her son took his bath before the dinner. He began then to catch his mother with a fit of crying close to the hysteria. She put several minutes to calm him and had to carry him herself in his bathroom, so that he agreed to wash himself. When she returned, Émilie seemed irritated.

" When do you become a little more severe with your child?''

''Raoul is a fragile boy. He is very sensitive since the death of his grandmother.''

''Eugénie had of the authority on him. You should have taken example on her.''

''My mother-in-law had a way of educating him and I have another one. It has been only four months since she died. It is necessary to let him understand. I am sure that he will eventually behave better.''

''And what does your husband say on this subject?'' The Comtesse asked.

Christine raised her eyes to heaven. Well, Émilie had arrived what she was getting at...

" He lets me manage the education of our son.''

''It does not amaze me, seeing that the Vicomte is never at home.''

''He works, he manages the interests of our family.''

''And his own at the same time...''

''I do not understand what you are getting at.'' Christine feigned the innocence.

'' I mean that even when he stays in Paris, we see him only rarely by your side.''

''Raoul and I decided, unanimously, that he had to continue to go to the receptions and to the dinners when we are invited. By day, he goes to his club where his friends and he discuss about business. I prefer to stay here, to take care of my son. I have never had too many tastes for the receptions.''

'' But you do not even go any more to the theater!''

''I have never had taste for the shows.''

''For a former ballet dancer and opera singer, it would amaze me strongly!''

''It was in another life, Émilie. It seems to me that it is not me who lived that.''

''However if you do not love any more the theater, your husband is always fond of it.''

'' I know that he made a donation to the Comédie Française. It is natural for him to continue to cultivate the taste of the arts, as his father did it before him.''

'' I believe especially that he also cultivates the taste for the artists, in particular the comedians.''

''Émilie, for God's sake, come to the point. I know that you want to say to me something but you make only vague insinuations.''

''My friend, it is because I ignore how to tell you what I saw yesterday evening.''

''And where were you yesterday evening?''

''At the opera. The Vicomte arrived with Justine Simeniot, a new comedian from the Comédie Française. The noise circulates that she would be her mistress. "

Christine suddenly felt dizzy and she caught hold of the table. Émilie got up to help her friend.

" My dear, it was my duty to inform you. I am sorry to impose you such torment.''

''It's nothing. You did well. Raoul has the right to be happy. He deserves it.''

''How can you react so? '' Émilie outraged.

''And you? How do you act while the Comte is deceiving you shamelessly? "

It was the first time when they quarrelled. Christine was angry with herself. It did not belong to Émilie to pay for Raoul's faults.

" I thought that you were attached enough to your husband not to let him soil your reputation.''

''I only want Raoul's happiness. If he finds it with another woman, it is because I did not get him so much love as I shall have owed. It's all.''

''My dear, you have all the qualities to make the happiest man of the world of him.''

''To tell the truth, I don't think so. It has been since the birth of our son since we sleep in separate rooms. In my demand. I wanted to take care of my baby at night, when he was an infant and my husband needed sleep. He had asked me to have a nursemaid for night but I refused. Since, I did not return to the conjugal room. I knew that I couldn't bring him anymore what he wanted. I am not stupid, Émilie. I suspected although, during his journeys, he would visit other women and I am sure that he did it. But I thought that, in Paris, he would be more discreet. "

Christine was relieved to be finally able to confide in somebody. She had not done it since a long time. Even beside the grave of her father, she had been incapable for admitting the failure of her marriage as well as the reasons of this failure.

Now, she had the reality in front of her eyes. Tears ran along her cheeks.

" It would seem that the Vicomte offered her an apartment a few steps away from the theater, this week. That's why it worries me, Christine. It is not any more an evening affair but an official affair, since yesterday. I knew the same misfortune as you. I extremely suffered from it and I acted as you. I let nothing appear. It broke me as nobody could imagine. And at the moment, through you, I see the same plot repeating. I cannot bear it. If you need to confide or to soothe your pain, I will be there.''

''Thank you, Émilie. You always testified me a lot of care and affection. Everything will be fine. Tomorrow, I will leave with my son at the house at the beach, as well as Madam Monier. Raoul will join us in few weeks.''

'' If I can give you a piece of advice, do not let this Mademoiselle Simeniot settle down too quickly. Discuss with Raoul. Maybe both you will find a means to be together at last. Try to save your marriage, Christine. It is not even too late. "

OoOoOoOoOoO

Raoul was absent, as usual, this evening. Christine had dined with her son and the Comtesse de Noailles. This one quickly left to let her friend meditate on her situation.

Christine had, immediately after Émilie's departure, gone in her room. She had sent away her chambermaid. She wanted to be alone. She had not removed her dress. She had just removed the spins of her bun and was occupied with brushing her hair, while she was thinking.

She had decided to wait for Raoul to discuss with him. It had been a long time since they had taken time to speak together. They had eventually been foreigners in the same house. Simple friends bound by a commitment for life. If somebody was a culprit, it was her.

Suddenly, she heard a noise in the apartments of her husband, neighboring to her own. He had returned and the clock indicated midnight thirty. She summoned up all her courage, went out of her room and went to knock to the door of her husband.

Nobody answered. She knocked a little more hardly. Always no answer. Nevertheless, she continue to hear the noise on the other side of the door. Raoul was not apparently alone. She just hoped that he had no boldness to bring a woman at home. She decided to enter no matter the scene which would take place. She put the hand on the handle of the door and opened it. What she saw, she could never imagine it.

" Angel of Music, no!'' She shouted.

It was Him who was standing there, in this room. He had not changed, in spite of so many years. Always the same, like in her dreams. He wore a black mask which hid him superior half of his face. Similar to the one that He wore for "Don Juan Triumphant".

As an evening, ten years previously, He tightened a rope firmly in the hands and in the middle of the slipknot was Raoul's throat.

" Christine, help me, please!'' Raoul begged, in a choked voice.

She was paralyzed.

What did she have to do?

Everything was about to repeat. She took one step forward but the Ghost prevented her from it with his hoarse and cold voice.

" If you continue to move forward, I kill him!''

''Angel of the Music…'' Christine repeated.

''I do not grant a second chance. This evening, he is going to die from my own hands, as it would have happened, ten years ago! He does not deserve you. Not after what he has done to you! "

Christine could do nothing. Nothing except singing to save Raoul. She began then singing. For the Phantom. For Raoul. She had not done it for a decade but notes came with grace and easiness.

_Angel of the Music, do not kill him!_

_Angel, I beg you, come to me!_

" No music will prevent me from ending what I came to finish off, this time, Christine. Neither your voice, nor one of your kisses! "

The Ghost continued to speak to her. He did not sing, as he had done it back at the opera. She had never had conversation with him which is never sung. She knew that if, physically, he had not changed, inside him, he was different.

Nevertheless, Christine was not able to refrain from singing, from singing what she kept inside her heart. She did not listen to the petitions of the Ghost who asked her to stop, nor the deep breath of Raoul who began to suffocate. She sang and felt every chains around her evaporating.

_Ten years to wait for your coming_

_Without you I was feeling I'm dying_

_This marriage was broken by what I didn't say_

_Angel of Night, I just want you to stay_

_Angel of the Music, put the blame on me_

_Every day I thought of you!_

_Angel of the Music, forgive me_

_My life is empty without you!_

Erik had loosened slowly his mortal embrace, during her song.

Her voice. She couldn't be anything but a siren to bewitch him so. He did not manage to ignore what she had just admitted him. She had not thus forgotten him.

He brutally took a vase which was on the chest of drawers near him and broke it on Raoul's skull. This one fell on the carpet. He lay on the ground, motionless. Christine moved towards him, removed the rope around his neck, verified that he was only fainted. The Ghost had not moved. He was always standing in front of her.

" Raoul did everything he could so that I was happy but who I missed, it was you.

_Masquerade, paper faces on parade,_

_Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you_

_Angel, I love you''_ She sang to him.

She put back to him the rope in his hands.

" Well, now that you know all the truth, I pass the point of no return. "

She drew her fingers near his face to touch his mask, when they heard a noise in the corridor. The Ghost turned then his back on Christine and with an agile movement, went out through the opened window, where from he had entered.

" No! Don't go away.'' She begged him.

''Tomorrow, go to Madame Giry's dancing school.'' He said to her.

He came down by the gutter and fled.

OooOoOoOoOoO

Raoul was laying on his bed, when he woke up. He wanted to get up but Christine prevented him from it and, with a firm hand, she pushed away him against his pillow. His head gave him shooting pains. He put a hand on his skull and discovered that it was bandaged. The doctor examined him and decreed that the Vicomte was fine. The bruise was small. He should just rest in bed a few days. Christine and Raoul were alone, when the doctor left them.

" Christine... "

She put a finger on the lips of her husband, ordering him to keep silent.

" You returned into your apartments. You met a thief. He knocked out you with the vase and he fled. I arrived a few seconds later. The chief of the police wants to see you tomorrow so that you make a testimony and it is what you will say to him.''

''You saved my life...''

''It was the second time and it was just. I cannot predict what will happen, if he begins again. If he came this evening, it is because you did not obey his orders, right?''

''Well, because we are in the confidences now, it is true that I received some threats from his part. It had been a long time since he had disappeared that I did not take them seriously. At the moment, it is necessary to find him. I shall explain everything to the chief of the police tomorrow.''

''You will do nothing.''

'' It is necessary to arrest him, Christine. It is the only way to be quiet...''

''The only way is that you stop seeing Mademoiselle Simeniot regularly. "

Raoul opened wide eyes. She had said it in a quite natural voice.

" Émilie just warned me this afternoon.'' She explained to him.

''I would have had to suspect it. But, even if I obey his requirements, he will not stop there. It is necessary...''

''You will do nothing!'' Christine repeated by exclaiming. As I shall do nothing with your affair with this comedian. I am going to tell to the domestics that I do not leave tomorrow. I cancel my journey in Normandy. "

Raoul was surprised by the transformation of his wife. He had never seen her like that. She was self-assured. She seemed to have gone out from a long state of lethargy which had lasted during ten years. He understood then that he had not dared to admit, all this time, as for Christine's behavior.

" It is not me who you love, it is it? "

Christine did not answer, as if this silence was acquiescence.''

" Then, why do you have married me finally?''

''I was naive and too young, Raoul. I was unable to take the slightest decision by myself. You loved me and I promise you that I also loved you. From the bottom of my heart. But not the way you hoped. You are my childhood friend, almost a brother. I believed that a normal life with you was all that I wanted but, in the end, I was wrong. It was him. It was always him. "

_**Here for this chapter! I am discouraged by the few reviews which you send me! Nevertheless, I know that you are certain number to follow this fic! I want your opinions! Don't be shy! While waiting for the next chapter, write me your reviews!**_

_**And you know that I no longer have a beta-reader since the second chapter so if you are interested to help me with my grammar mistakes and all, PM me!**_


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